


Under My Skin

by phoenixreal



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Abusive Bruce, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Blood, Blood Loss, Bottom Tony Stark, Bruce & Hulk Interaction, Bruce Has Issues, Domestic Violence, Gaslighting, Hulk Sex, Hurt Tony, Identity Issues, Infidelity, M/M, Manipulation, Protective Hulk, Protective Steve Rogers, Rescue, Rough Sex, Science Husbands, Secrets, Self Confidence Issues, Sexual Abuse, Size Difference, Stony - Freeform, Top Bruce Banner, Top Steve Rogers, Verbal Abuse, Verbal Humiliation, marital rape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-10 08:14:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2017593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce and Tony have been married for almost a year after dating for another.  Things seem so wonderful to the others.  They're the perfect couple, after all, and they seem to have made something impossible work.  Then Tony walks in on something he doesn't believe or understand, and the truth about the monster Tony married is revealed.  Only, to everyone's surprise, the monster isn't the Hulk.</p><p>Note Please that this is very much in process and evolution.  I've recently added the Ultimate Spiderman team to the story, which it initially did not include.  I've also gone back and changed several things that will show up when the next chapter is posted.  PLEASE keep reviewing and giving me suggestions.  These suggestions and ideas fuel this evolution.  When final version is done, it will be completed and available on my website for download in pdf and ebook formats but to get there, I've got to take this all the way!</p><p>Thanks for reading!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. When the Honeymoon Ends

**Author's Note:**

> Second version, edits may be coming.
> 
> Beware this is a violent story. Please mind the tags.
> 
> This story has a gift fic, please go read and review, very well written!!! http://archiveofourown.org/works/2019084
> 
> A/N: WARNINGS: Pay attention to tags below. Warnings not repeated on subsequent chapters. May be continued if there is interest.
> 
> This is cannon divergent fanfiction. Characters exist in their own world, but I have altered events from a certain point. In some cases, the characters and their personalities have been altered to fit the situations and have evolved in some ways..
> 
> Warnings
> 
> This is a hardcore slash fanfiction. This is rated MA. This contains explicit sexual content. This story includes domestic violence, sexual, mental and physical abuse, and marital rape. This story also contains graphic violence, blood, and gore. This story is not intended to be read by individuals under the age of 18.
> 
> Disclaimer
> 
> I do not claim ownership of any part of the Avengers universe or of the Avengers characters. Marvel Entertainment, LLC owns this amazing world; I am simply playing within it. Original elements do belong to me. There is no copyright infringement intended and I in no way make money from writing or posting this work of fanfiction.

* * *

**Under My Skin**

Under my skin,  
Just below the surface,  
There is someone else waiting to get out.  
Into the night, it does scream and shout.

Under my skin,  
Where no one else can see,  
There is a better me waiting to let go.  
Into the day, it does trouble me so.

Under my skin,  
In the darkness of my night,  
The old skin is dying and the world is pale.  
Into the depths, it does wind and wail.

Under my skin,  
In a shell that is broken and cracked,  
There is a beauty that no one has yet seen.  
Into the air, it does scream and keen.

Under my skin,  
In the end I can become more and more,  
The changing has come deep upon me,  
And my wings are now open, can you see?  
~*~Brenda K. Sims~*~

* * *

Avengers were everywhere after the Battle of New York. People celebrated the people that saved them like never before. They appreciated the fact that the Avengers stood for them when no one else seemed to care. Thor had gone home to Asgard with Loki, and all seemed safe and sound. People often forgot that the Avengers were just people despite their powers. Everyone on the team had something special about them that never left them. Black Widow and Hawkeye were expert assassins. Captain America was a super soldier. And the Hulk, well the Hulk was the Hulk. Nothing could kill him, it seemed. Of course, then there was the one among them without powers or special training, Tony Stark. He had his suit and could do amazing things, but underneath, he was just as human as the people on the streets of New York.

Tony was an insufferable ass most the time, and he kept people at arm’s length. No one really knew his reasons, but like most people, he had reasons for being the way he was. However, he tried his best to make those all-important connections to other people but ended up pushing even Pepper away from him. He couldn’t change who he was, and Pepper, though patient and loving as they came, eventually couldn’t handle him anymore. He wouldn’t listen to her and refused to care for himself. They parted amicably; both deciding they weren’t right for each other and Tony kept searching for something to fill the emptiness in his life. Pepper went on to date Happy, and Tony went on a spree of one night stands and drunken benders.

Bruce, like Tony, kept people away. He had tried to let Betty in and it just didn’t work. It put her in danger. Normal people were too vulnerable for Bruce to be around. He had accepted Tony’s invitation to work in Avenger Tower, even if he didn’t completely trust SHIELD. He knew that Tony didn’t either, so he felt somewhat safer being a part of the Avengers since it was based out of Tony’s tower. He also couldn’t believe Tony’s generosity with all of them, including practically giving Bruce an entire floor of the tower to himself and building a “hulk room” for times when the Hulk needed to come out. One of the strangest things to Bruce, however, was how human Tony treated the Other Guy. He wasn’t afraid of him, and he never seemed bothered when Bruce lost control. It seemed the feeling was mutual, because the Hulk seemed to be willing to do anything to keep Tony safe.

In a way, all the Avengers kept to themselves and eschewed involving others in their lives. Even Clint and Natasha, though they were, like Tony, only human, kept to themselves and away from outsiders. So it was no wonder that the two assassins ended up in a relationship with each other. It was a pull and push relationship and there was always a fight between them, but it usually ended up in spectacular angry make up sex that woke half the tower. Tony often picked on them incessantly, claiming that Clint moaned more than any woman he’d ever seen.

After a year of being alone, Tony realized how lonely he was. He spent all his time in his shop or in his lab and his only real friends were his bots. Out of sheer boredom one day, he found himself in Bruce’s lab watching him run some experiments on tissue samples. He ended up talking with Bruce for hours about inventing some new devices that he could use in the lab for his work. Bruce understood the things Tony said, and he understood what Tony did. Unlike others he’d been with, Tony didn’t have to dumb down his conversation, and omit huge parts of his life from their discussions. So it was no wonder that they grew to become friends, and eventually, two years after the battle for New York, Tony ended up married to him. It had been a lavish event that also celebrated New York’s acceptance of same sex marriage, thanks a good deal to Tony’s influence.

At the beginning, Bruce was everything he wanted in a friend, lover and confidant. He cared for Tony and doted on him, and he let Tony care for him and doted on him in return. It was an equal relationship and it was exactly what Tony wanted and needed. He was still Tony Stark, of course. He had a billion dollar company to run, and he had events to go to, and cameras to smile at, and people to impress. It wasn’t like he changed at all; he simply thought that things would continue as they were. He would kiss women on the cheek, smile and wave at them, but in the end, they exhausted him, and he only wanted to come back to Bruce, and feel like he didn’t have to pretend to be something he wasn’t.

Then after they’d been married a year, the honeymoon, as they say, was over. In fact, it started much earlier than that, almost six months after their June wedding. Small things started to bother Bruce, and Tony tried to fix them. He really did. Time passed, and Tony watched as the person he loved slowly disappeared and was replaced with a monster. Unfortunately, the hulk wasn’t the monster. Bruce was.

_Three years after the Battle of New York_

_Saturday Night, around 6:30 pm_

“Tony,” Steve said as he poked his head into the lab where Tony was sitting with a welding torch and a facemask. As usual, he was wearing a black tank top and old jeans with heavy boots. His arc reactor shined brightly in the room. He was working on some piece of metal

“Yeah?” he said, flipping up the mask and looking up and Steve frowned at him.

“Did you get that in the last fight with the Doombots? I didn’t notice it before,” he said, gesturing to the black bruise on Tony’s right shoulder.

The day before Reed Richards had asked them to help clean up a bunch of Doombots that had been running rampant down in central park. Reed was after Dr. Doom and he’d escaped to the north, so he had requested the Avengers lend a hand at clean up. Tony didn’t mind, the Doombots were annoying, but exceedingly easy to kill. He had gotten slammed into one of the buildings, but honestly it barely jostled him inside the suit.

Tony glanced down as though he’d forgotten about it. “Oh, this, yeah. Got knocked into the building, remember? Got smashed against the inside of the suit just right, you know how it is,” he said with a paparazzi smile.

Steve knew now how to pick up on that fake smile of Tony’s. In three years he’d learned that the man was inscrutable in some ways, but if one watched closely, one could pick up on the things like his fake smile. It was the smile he put on for the cameras when he was hurting inside or outside. It was something that Steve hated to see more than anything in the world. Something wasn’t quite right but Steve just couldn’t put his finger on it.   And he swore when he saw Tony get out of his armor the day before he hadn’t been bruised there. Maybe it had just taken a while to show up, he thought to himself. Steve wasn’t sure; it wasn’t like he healed like a normal human and it sometimes made it easy to forget that Tony wasn’t like him, Thor, and Bruce.

“Um, yeah, just came down to let you know that everyone wants to have a movie night, you and Bruce want to come?” he asked, smiling. “Clint has this new popcorn machine, and I guess Thor’s coming down from Asgard to visit for a week or so, so we figured it would be a good time to have a get together.”

Tony paused and nodded. “I’ll ask Brucie. I’m sure he’ll be up for it; he’s been in his lab with that Parker kid for the last week working on the gamma radiation tests almost nonstop. If those two don’t figure out everything there is to know about gamma radiation by the time they’re done, I’ll be surprised. They’ve been working very hard at it. To be honest it will be nice to spend some time with him, I haven’t seen him much.”

“Okay, Tony, see you upstairs,” Steve said, smiling and heading back up the stairs.

He paused just outside the door and watched for a minute as Tony turned back to his work, seemingly without a care in the world. However, there was something about the way he was sitting, leaning slightly to his right. Maybe he’d been hurt more in the fight than he was letting on, he thought. He shook the thought away and got in the elevator. Bruce would handle it, no doubt. Bruce always made sure that he was healthy.

After he was gone, Tony let the smile on his face fade and sat with his head bowed for a while. He had no idea what was going on with Bruce. It wasn’t a lie that he hadn’t spent much time with him lately. Truly, he hadn’t seen much of his husband in the last two months. For the last couple months, he had been distant and distracted, and was obsessed with the work he was doing with the Parker kid, a Freshman at a local college who practically worshipped the Avengers. True, the kid was a scientific genius, even at nineteen. Together they were trying to figure out how gamma radiation had altered each of their bodies. Peter was a junior Avenger, well, that’s what Tony called them anyway; they were younger superheroes that needed more supervision by shield than those that were old enough to go out without a permission slip. There were five of them, and to be honest, Tony didn’t care to know much about them. He considered them more of SHIELD’s lackeys, at Fury’s beck and call.

Tony thought it was a little odd for Bruce to spend that much time with anyone, even a fellow superhero. He seemed so skittish around others most the time out of fear that the Hulk could hurt them. Peter, or Spiderman as he liked to call himself, of course was a gamma altered human as well. He also had incredible strength and healing capabilities, as well as obviously spider like abilities. Tony paused in the kitchen on the way and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee with a soft sigh. No one was around, but that was okay. He looked out the broad glass windows over the city and smiled to himself. He wouldn’t admit it to the others, but he was happy they had taken him up on his offer to live at the tower. He gave the quiet city a look over and sipped his coffee. He quietly watched the sun headed toward the horizon.

It was almost seven, so he should go see if Bruce wanted to come out and watch the movie with the others. Movie nights usually started around eight with large amounts of popcorn, sweets, and sodas. Sometimes they invited others, like the kids from Fury’s junior team, but not often. Sometimes, like today, would be a chance to catch up with Thor, and possibly his girlfriend Jane if he picked her up on the way. He loved talking to Jane; she was such an intelligent woman. But Bruce wasn’t fond of him spending time with her, so he often kept his interactions brief with her. All in all, Tony enjoyed it, especially if he and Bruce could curl up on the loveseat together. Neither Tony nor Bruce was into public displays of affection toward each other. In fact, they rarely even held hands or kissed lightly in public. It wasn’t a matter of hiding, everyone in the whole damn world knew about the famous Tony Stark marrying Bruce Banner, the one and only green rage machine, the Hulk. It was just their personalities were not the type to show off in public like that. To be honest, Tony showed more outward affection toward strangers in public than he did Bruce. However, like his paparazzi smile, it was all for show, and he knew Bruce understood that.

In fact, the two kept the details of their relationship quite private. The only people that had any idea as to what Tony and Bruce were like in private were the people in the tower, and even then, they didn’t see behind closed doors. Tony had looked for so long for someone that could be who he needed them to be. In his searching, he had found himself in bed after bed of woman after woman. There was no doubt that Tony could please them. However, it left him hollow and empty. It wasn’t until Tony and Bruce had sat down at the beginning of their relationship to talk about what sex would look like for them that Tony realized he had been going about things the wrong way the whole time. The others teased them incessantly about which one topped and bottomed for the other, and neither Bruce nor Tony ever gave any hints of what roles they each played in the bedroom. It was honestly none of their business they felt. It made Tony happy to know that Bruce agreed with him on that issue. For so long, every detail of his life was known; it was very nice to keep some things private and only between him and his husband.

Tony sighed and headed to the elevator to go up to the floor he’d basically given Bruce to see what he was up for tonight. Outwardly, he complained about everyone taking up his tower, but to be honest with himself, he had to admit he wanted to give them that and more. He didn’t expect anything in return and actually sometimes felt that they really did take advantage of his wealth and power as well as his inventions for them, but he didn’t mind. If he didn’t give them everything they wanted and needed, they’d go away, and he’d grown used to the companionship, even if it was sometimes grating on his nerves. Steve in particular would rub him wrong more often than not with his leadership role and trying to get Tony to do things his way and refusing to listen to him. Steve just didn’t get the way Tony worked, and he just couldn’t explain it to him. That’s why he had Bruce. Bruce understood him in ways no one else could. He smiled to himself and stepped out of the elevator and onto the floor, seeing the lights were on in the high windows of the lab.

Tony was about to knock on the lab door when he heard a noise from inside that was somewhat familiar. It sounded like Bruce was…moaning? He frowned and pushed on the door, finding it unlocked and that it hadn’t been closed properly anyway. He gently pushed it open and froze. He couldn’t move. His heart was beating a rapid rhythm in his ears and he was sure everyone in the Tower could hear it because it was so loud. Bruce and Peter were in the lab together, which didn’t surprise him. What did surprise Tony was the fact Bruce was sitting in one of the rolling chairs with his back to him and his feet braced against the desk and Peter was facing away on his lap, and he was apparently riding Bruce’s cock like a two dollar whore. The younger man was moaning obscenities and bouncing with the fervor that only a teenager could muster on Tony’s husband’s lap. Tony’s husband. Bruce. Bruce was fucking a nineteen year old in the middle of the lab where anyone could walk in, where Tony _had_ just walked in.

The coffee cup he was holding fell, shattering and startling both Peter and Bruce who both turned and stared at him. Bruce’s eyes went wide and he looked like he was about to say something. Tony turned and walked away slowly, shutting the door behind him very slowly and heading down to his workshop in a fugue. His hand was still cocked across his body as if the coffee cup were still there. Somehow he made it into the shop and shut the door behind him. He honestly didn’t even remember the trip. He didn’t even notice that he’d locked the door and opaqued it.

“JARVIS, priority code one; don’t let anyone in that door. Full lockdown mode,” Tony said quietly as he sat down on the small sofa he sometimes slept on and swallowed thickly. It was the one code the other Avengers and SHIELD could not override. Dum-E rolled over with a concerned beep and Tony patted him on the head without much thought.

Bruce was fucking someone else. Bruce was fucking someone else in the lab Tony gave him. He didn’t even leave the tower to do it. He flopped back on the sofa and stared at the metal ceiling. Why would he do this? Peter was a kid; he was barely eighteen years old. Bruce had never seemed the type to even look at other men and women, let alone pursue another partner. Why wouldn’t he have said something if he wasn’t satisfied? No, what if it was love? Tony could take him having sex with someone else and forgive him, but what if Bruce said he loved him? Tony didn’t think he could handle that sort of thing.

He heard someone beating on the wall. It wouldn’t do any good because he wasn’t going to let them in. Bruce was fucking someone else behind his back. His brain kept going to that scene. Maybe it was the first time? Maybe it was because of the fight they’d had this morning over Pepper’s visit. He’d nearly hulked out on Tony, he’d been so angry. Tony’s hand went to the bruise on his shoulder. Yeah, maybe that was it. He even accused him of sleeping with her again. He wondered how long it had been going on or if it was what he hoped and a one time lapse in judgment. Peter had been coming to the tower for over six months. Had it all been a lie? He wanted to believe that Bruce just had been angry and things just led to some office sex. His heart, though, was telling him differently.

“Sir, Mr. Barton is insisting that if you do not answer he will get Mr. Rogers to break the door despite my assurances that you are well and have requested to be left alone.”

Tony rolled over and pushed the intercom. “Go away, bird brain,” he said into it with his usual level of snark.

“Tony what’s going on? You’ve got Bruce all worked up about something, he had to lock himself in the hulk room, are you fighting again? If you and him fought less you could have more fun, you know,” Barton intoned said with a sigh.

“Go away, Barton,” he growled. “I don’t want to talk about it. Leave me alone.”

“You did something wrong again, didn’t you, Tony? What this time? Don’t tell me you decided to pick up one night stands again, Tony, I swear, if you did… You know Bruce can’t handle this kind of stress!” he said, anger tinging his voice. “For God’s sakes, Tony, he bends over backwards to put up with your crap in ways that no one else would. The least you can do is keep your dick in your pants, Tony. Only a year and you’re already getting the itch again? I wouldn’t be surprised, Tony.”

Tony felt tears stinging at his eyes. “Go the fuck away, Barton!” he said and turned off the intercom. Of course, Barton would assume he’d cheated on Bruce. He knew they all would. It wasn’t like he’d ever given them any real reason to not blame him.

How could he? How could Bruce, of all people? He curled in on himself and held in the sobs that were threatening to wrack his frame. He wasn’t going to cry like some jilted woman. He thought he’d found his place. He’s spent his life in different beds with different women, looking for the thing that made him feel alive. He thought it had been Bruce. Kind and gentle Bruce who could become the most dangerous creature for miles when angered. Despite his attempts, a few stray tears slipped down his face. He didn’t want to leave the workshop ever again. He just wanted to be alone in her forever and just have his robots and his suits and that was it. He knew that they wouldn’t betray him. He knew they would never blame them. Then he felt a deep tinge of pain because the fact was, he knew that it was desperately pathetic. He programed them after all. Of course, they wouldn’t betray him.

_Sunday Morning, around 1 am_

“Sir, Ms. Romanoff is requesting you speak to her,” JARVIS intoned some time later jolting him awake; he honestly didn’t know how long it had been. He glanced at the clock. It was about one am. He didn’t think he’d fallen asleep. Maybe he had and didn’t realize it.

Tony knew she wouldn’t leave him alone. He pushed the button again. “Go away, how much do I have to say it? I want to be left alone,” he growled.

“I swear to God, Tony, whatever you’ve done to upset Bruce…” she began sternly.

“I haven’t done a goddamned thing!” he almost screamed into the intercom then gasped, and bit a quivering lip. Shit, he never showed that kind of emotion to the rest of them. It had quieted Natasha though. “Just leave me alone,” he said in a more reserved tone and shut off the intercom.

Of course they’d all think it was his fault. It was always his fault. He was the drunk, the womanizer, the playboy, the asshole that used sarcasm and fucked everything up. He wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t ever good enough. Not for his father and now not for Bruce. Only Peggy Carter had ever shown him any true faith and affection. He swallowed, remembering all the stories of Steve he’d heard fall from her lips, the ones he really adored and remembered so vividly. The ones Howard had told were so grandiose and amazing, they seemed too big to be real. But not Peggy Carter’s stories of the Steve Rogers that was the one he wanted to know. He was hurt beyond words to find out that the Steve Rogers that came out of the ice was the one his father had known, and not the person Peggy had known. So it had been Bruce that he confided his pain and his long to, and Bruce that had comforted him and told him that it was okay that he was sad and okay that he let someone in to see that hidden part of himself. Tony gave him that, and Bruce had said it was all he needed. That was perhaps the part that hurt the most. Bruce had told him he was everything to him, and that he never needed anything else.

He fell asleep on the couch eventually. He was frankly emotionally exhausted and honestly hadn’t slept in days anyway. At some point, Bruce had stopped asking if he was sleeping or eating. Tony didn’t remember when it was, though.

_Sunday evening, around 7 pm_

“Sir?” came Jarvis again, softly and far away. “Sir, please wake up. Mr. Rogers has threatened to remove the door if you do not emerge. I am afraid telling him you were asleep did not assuage his fears that you may be endangering your health.”

Tony sighed and stood up wearily and headed over to the opaque doorway. He stared at it for a long moment. Steve, poor ignorant out of time Steve. In some ways, Tony still thought of him as his hero. Sometimes when he put on that suit and stood in front of him, Tony was that kid sitting in his bed staring at the poster of America’s Greatest Hero and wishing that he could be like him some day. He’d been so in love with the idea as a child. Then even more in love with it when he met Peggy. Then Howard almost ruined his image, and Steve really did destroy it. That was a child’s dream. There were no real heroes; just poor messed up people like him. He sighed and pressed the button to make the door slide open. He froze to see not just Steve but Bruce as well standing there. Bruce was inscrutable and placid looking, while Steve looked angry.

“Tony, you’ve had us all worried!” Steve chided. “Locking yourself in here and worrying Bruce senseless? He was worried sick, Tony! You’ve been down here like twenty four hours!”

Tony shook his head. “I fell asleep,” he said sullenly, not looking at either of them. Twenty four hours? That had to be a sleep record, especially for him. He was still exhausted, though. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep again.

Steve shook his head. “I think you two have some talking to do,” he said. “Bruce wouldn’t tell me what happened, but it was obviously serious. I can’t have two members of my team fighting like this. Tony, what would have happened if there had been an emergency with you locked down here? And with Bruce hulking out in the rage room? We would have been down two people! This isn’t acceptable, Tony! We can’t afford to have this kind of thing happening.   Who knows what might endanger the city? The junior team couldn’t handle a major emergency.”

Tony fought the urge to scream at him and punch him. The urge to just tell Steve he’d caught Bruce fucking a teenager in their lab was so strong…but he wouldn’t believe him. No one would. Why should they? He was the playboy, the one that fucked around, and the one who everyone told to be careful with Bruce. And the cameras had been disabled in there, he’d checked after he came to the workshop, even though he already knew they were. After the “The Incident”, he’d disabled them in there. Instead, Tony shook his head and pushed past the super soldier to the elevator and headed to his room. Bruce turned and spoke to Steve as the doors closed. What was he supposed to say? What could he have said?

Tony had no idea as he flopped on their bed. He curled to his side and waited for the inevitable. More than anything, he hated arguing with Bruce. If felt like when he was little and being scolded by Howard. When Bruce hurt him, it even felt more like he was a child again, cowering in the corner away from Howard and his drunken rage. Tony seemed to have forgotten that a marriage shouldn’t feel like a trap, and that he shouldn’t feel like a little kid in a corner. The door opened and closed and he fought the urge to turn and yell at his husband. He didn’t move instead and ignored him.

“Tony, we need to talk,” Bruce said softly.

Tony shook his head. “What can you say, Bruce? I know what I saw.”

“I’m not denying it. Peter and I have been sleeping together almost since I invited him to the tower,” he said without pause.

For some reason it hurt more than he expected to have it confirmed. He almost had wished he’d denied it, tried to explain it. No, he just admitted it. Tony nodded. “Why?” he finally said quietly. He’d come to the tower for six months. They’d only been married a year.

Tony felt the bed dip beside his knees. “I don’t know to be honest, Tony. I really don’t. I think it has something to do with him being gamma altered like me. We have a connection that others don’t have.”

Tony’s breath caught. _Tony, I can’t believe this is happening. No one else could make me this happy, we just have a connection nobody else can have, or understand._ How…how could he say that…

“So I’m not good enough for you because I’m human without the suit,” he said quietly. It was something that had stuck with him ever since the day he’d met Steve. _Big man with a suit. Take that suit away and what are you?_ A smart ass answer as always had fallen from his lips, but the truth was that he was nothing without it.

Bruce sighed and put a hand on Tony’s thigh. “Tony I was alone for a long time. I wanted to settle down, you know, with you. But I guess I can’t. I…” He sighed again. “Peter doesn’t make me so frustrated like you do, Tony. He doesn’t have to be reminded to eat and sleep and take care of himself. He doesn’t put himself in danger all the time when he can’t heal himself. I think that’s what it is. You just…get under my skin and make me so angry, Tony,” he said as he squeezed Tony’s thigh with his hand.

Of course it would be his fault. That was the way it always was. That would never change. “I’m sorry, Bruce,” he said softly. What was he sorry for? Being the person that he always had been? That was exactly what he was sorry for, to be honest. It was what he was always sorry for.

“No, I’m sorry, because I should have known better. You look at others all the time, and you just cannot listen to the simplest things, Tony, and it isn’t fair that you are surprised that I would seek out someone who is easier to deal with,” he said and Tony winced as Bruce’s hand tightened on his thigh.

“Ow, Bruce, that hurts,” he said, opening his eyes and seeing that Bruce was staring at him.

“It does?” he asked, tightening his grip further, the pads of his fingers digging painfully into Tony’s muscle.

Tony grimaced. “Bruce, stop,” he said, pushing to sit up and attempting to pull his leg from his grip. “Come on, I’m sorry I overreacted, okay, I should I have done better, I’m sorry, okay? Please, Brucie, I just want to forget it…” he said, tears pricking his eyes from the pain shooting up his thigh. Okay his grip was stronger than it should have been. This was another thing he’d noticed, even when not hulking out, Bruce had gotten stronger. Before, without the Hulk, Bruce was normal, but lately, his hands never seemed to touch him without leaving marks.

“Tony, I’m just going to have to show you that I’m the one in control here,” he said, turning to look at him with eyes ringed in green. “You can’t forget it because you are the one that has done it.”

“Bruce, please, you’re hurting me,” he said, pushing back on his hand and looking at him.

Bruce leaned forward and kissed him, but Tony didn’t respond, turning his face away instead and shaking his head. “I can’t, please, Bruce,” he said, looking away from him. He saw Bruce’s lips on Peter and the image turned his stomach. How could they kiss and make up when all he could see was Bruce giving someone else the gentle kisses and touches that used to belong only to him?

Bruce’s face seemed to change, to harden and he grabbed Tony’s chin and forced a harsh kiss onto him, forcing his tongue into his mouth and crushing Tony’s lips with his teeth until Tony tasted blood running into his mouth. Tony froze with wide eyes. It wasn’t the first time, and he should have expected it and known that if Bruce initiated it, he would have to go with it or get hurt. Tony had learned really quickly that he couldn’t tell Bruce no.

“Tony, you’re mine, remember that,” Bruce breathed into his mouth and Tony wanted to sink into the bed. It wasn’t the first time Bruce had said something possessive like that, but it was the first time that Tony felt like dirt when he said it.

It happened faster than Tony thought possible. Bruce leaned back and flipped Tony to his belly, and then he was over him, lying on top of his back, crushing the air from him. The arc reactor housing pressed against his ribs painfully. He couldn’t get the breath to say anything as he felt the back of his tank ripped apart and felt Bruce sink his teeth into the thick muscle at his neck. He arched as he felt blood run down his back. Fuck, that hurt, he thought. He tried to push him off his back because it hurt too much, his teeth and the pressure was killing him.

“Stay still,” Bruce growled against his broken skin.

“Please, Bruce, you’re hurting me, I can’t…” he whimpered as he felt Bruce’s hands slide into the waist of his jeans and yank them roughly off him, the denim ripping with the force.

He took the chance and tried to crawl away despite his nudeness, scrambling out of the legs of his jeans and grabbing for the headboard to pull himself up and off the bed. Suddenly he didn’t care if the others knew, if they saw him like this, weak and used and useless. He just had to get away from Bruce because something was different and Tony Stark was scared. He could fly a nuke into an outer space portal, but right now, that paled in comparison to the look on his husband’s face.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried to get away from Bruce when these things happened. He knew it so well, of course, the thoughts. The main reason no one could know what happened, of course. _Well, why didn’t you leave? You let him, so it is your fault. He’s your husband, you married him, of course he deserves to have what he needs. If you didn’t like it, why didn’t you leave?_ The imagined questions, words, and judgments echoed in his brain. As long as this had been going on, how could he now walk out and ask them for help? How could he ask them to believe him when he told them what Bruce had become? They wouldn’t believe him, especially once Bruce gave them the answers they expected to hear. He felt tears again as he nearly got upright onto his knees and about to slide off the bed.

Bruce grabbed his ankle with a growl and Tony’s hands slipped. He released a long whine as his face bounced off the headboard, blood exploding from his nose and pain shooting across his cheeks. He gasped and saw stars as Bruce drug him back and wrapped one arm around Tony’s neck and pulled him tight against his body.

“You’re making me hurt you, Tony,” he said, biting down into his shoulder again and using his free hand to undo his own pants. “Just stay still, and I won’t hurt you, Tony,” he said. “We’ve discussed this. Just stay still and I’ll be nice, remember? We talked about this so many times.”

And they had. At first he’d been so kind and loving and just perfect. Then he had become rougher and rougher, leaving Tony unsatisfied as well. It left Tony feeling used, but then he’d be sweet and caring again, and he wondered if it had just been a fluke. But as time went on those flukes were more frequent until if Bruce wanted to have sex, they had sex no matter what Tony’s thoughts on the issue were. _Can’t rape the willing, Tony. And you married me, so that makes you very willing_. It didn’t make him feel less used, even when he was allowed to reach completion because he’d make it seem like a gift and something to be earned. All the time, Tony just wanted to know where his Brucie had gone. That’s all he wanted, the Bruce Banner he fell in love with in the lab. The Bruce that blushed so brightly when Tony asked him out for the first time was who he wanted to see again.

However, Bruce lied when he said he wouldn’t hurt him if he stayed still. He seemed to really want to hurt Tony tonight, as he didn’t take the time to grab the lube from the dresser or even touch Tony before he slammed himself into his husband without a warning. Tony’s eyes went wide and he couldn’t breathe with Bruce’s arm around his throat. A muffled whine was all that he could manage with his air restricted. Bruce had wrapped his other arm around his waist to hold him still and to keep his body flush against him. Tony’s hands were scratching at Bruce’s arm as he tried to breathe. He’d never done this before, he thought. He’d been rough, and he’d held Tony down, but he always made sure Tony was ready. He had never taken him dry before.

Tony couldn’t breathe much and the world was blacking in patches. He couldn’t tell where his body ended and Bruce began. It was blurring together and he wondered if he manhandled Peter this way. From what he had seen, he didn’t. He hadn’t been allowed on the top during sex for such a long time, and to see that someone else could do that for Bruce as more painful than Bruce practically raping him in their bed. Was it rape though? He was his husband, so it wasn’t. That’s what Tony told himself every time. He was having a hard time justifying this, however, as his duty to his husband.

The sounds Bruce was making were guttural and he felt like he was…no… Tony struggled against him franticly then felt the muscles of Bruce’s arm under his neck ripple and grow. No… Tony knew all too well if he hulked completely, he could kill him.   More than once, he and the rest of the team had seen the hulk naked. Of course, Tony had made a uniform for him when they went on missions that altered with his size, but before that, sometimes his hulking out completely obliterated Bruce’s clothes. The size increase in his body was proportionate, including his more intimate parts.

Tony felt the weight on his back increase and he nearly passed out as Bruce finished the change into the hulk, still buried to the root inside him. He thought having his husband force himself on him like this was terrible enough, but now…this wasn’t Bruce anymore and he had no idea if he was going to survive the encounter. Never before had Bruce lost it during sex. He had said there was no way the hulk could come out during such an intimate act that was so far from rage. That meant that this time…this time it was about anger and rage. The now green arm loosened around Tony’s neck and he felt the wash of release inside him, deeper and more painful than ever before. He felt like he was inside his stomach and everywhere in between. He fell forward and couldn’t help but let out a thick sob as the incredible pressure and pain decreased suddenly. He felt wetness running down the backs of his thighs and he didn’t want to know exactly what it was.

“Tony?” came the hulk’s confused voice. Tony whimpered and hoped that it was hulk’s personality and not Bruce. Hulk loved Tony and wouldn’t hurt him. As strange as that sound, Tony was not worried in the least about the Hulk. He never had been.

Tony couldn’t move, let alone answer him as he was sure he had never in this much pain. “Tony hurt? Hulk hurt Tony?” Hulk said, putting a hand against Tony’s exposed backside, making him flinch and whimper.

The world spun and Tony was looking up into Hulk’s confused face. Tony shook his head. “No, Hulk,” he said, wincing as pain shot through his nose. That was broken. He knew there were bruises around his throat and waist from the insane tight grip Bruce had held him in, and he was pretty sure that where he’d gripped his leg; there would be a bright purple one too.

“Bruce. Bruce hurt Tony,” Hulk said finally, pushing Tony’s sweaty hair out of his face. “Bad Bruce.”

Tony didn’t notice he was crying and the Hulk pulled him up against his chest and held him there for a long moment. Tony didn’t think he was in danger of dying or anything but he hurt. He felt like he had been shredded inside and out. There was a running joke around the tower about Tony and Bruce having to keep the Hulk out of the bedroom so Tony didn’t get hurt. He could officially say that was true. He felt hot and flushed all over and he wasn’t sure if he was going to stay conscious. He amended his thought about the danger of dying. Considering the spreading wetness underneath him, he was doubting that seriously. Obviously, the expansion had been enough to tear through something inside him.

“Hulk sorry,” he said, looking down at him. “Hulk go, bad Bruce,” he said, putting Tony down and leaping out through the window. Tony watched him go and wondered how long he’d stay away. He’d miss the big guy if he stayed away for a long time.

To think, Tony Stark was more afraid of Bruce Banner than he was of the Hulk.

The whole AI had been shut off in the bedroom. It had to be; otherwise JARVIS would have picked up on Tony’s physical symptoms and told the others. No, he couldn’t let that happen. After the “incident”, Tony had reset protocols on JARVIS to ignore certain medial symptoms that were related to Tony’s health. Bruce was a doctor, after all, and no matter how he hurt him, Bruce would fix him up and no one knew any better about what had happened. Right now, though, he was deeply regretting removing all of the interfaces with JARVIS in here, and his phone was too far away. He didn’t think he could get up so he just let go and passed out for a while. Maybe while he was asleep he could forget.

_Sunday evening, around 8 pm_

Steve had cooked for the night and served dinner for Clint, Natasha and Thor. As usual, when Cap cooked it was good old American food. Tonight, he’d made meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and sides of pan fried green beans and whole corn. He’d actually gotten quite good at cooking over the last three years. He smiled as he sat down with his companions and glanced at the two empty spaces. He didn’t think that Tony or Bruce would be down. He hoped they worked it out. There had been a lot of tension between the two of them.

Steve always used the excuse that it was bad for the team when there was infighting. It was, of course. However, he never harped on Clint and Natasha like he did on Tony and Bruce. He wouldn’t admit it, but there was more to it than just wanting to keep the team together and ready. He hated to see the look on Tony’s face when he and Bruce had been arguing about something.

“So what do you think Tony did to piss off Bruce so badly?” Clint said, picking at his food. He was definitely not the biggest fan of meat loaf, no matter how good it was.

Natasha shrugged. “I know they were arguing yesterday morning about Pepper.”

Steve sat down and looked at her. Pepper was often the subject of the arguments that Bruce and Tony had. “Tony wouldn’t cheat on Bruce with her, would he?”

Clint snorted. “He’s a playboy, the fact he keeps it in his pants as much as he does is amazing. I’m surprised that he hasn’t fucked half of New York by now. I still can’t believe he gave up women for Bruce. I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t sleeping with three or four women on the side. He’s been drinking when Bruce isn’t around, despite the fact he swore he’d give up the bottle for him. It isn’t far-fetched to think he’d drop into his other old vices as well.”

Thor frowned. “I don’t understand; the Man of Iron would do such a thing despite his bonding to Friend Bruce?”

Natasha shook her head sadly, having noted that Tony was secreting bottles of scotch and vodka in his workshop as well, “Yeah, I don’t doubt it at all.”

“Don’t doubt what?” came Pepper’s voice as she came up the steps into the dinner area. “Is Tony around?” she asked, looking at them. “What’s wrong with you lot?”

Steve swallowed, always feeling guilty when they’d been talking about Tony without him present. “Bruce and Tony were fighting.   I guess they got in a tiff over your visit, and then something else happened yesterday and Bruce spent the evening in the hulk room.”

Pepper frowned, looking up from the stack of files in her arms. Pepper was Stark Industries CEO now, and took care of the entire business. Tony, as the actual owner, would come to meetings and help with the big decisions for the company, but Pepper took care of everything else. “Why would they get in an argument about my visit?”

Clint stared at her. “You’re his ex, he’s a playboy…isn’t unbelievable that he’d be looking for something on the side.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please. Really? Tony adores Bruce. He’s practically all he talks about when we have downtime at Stark Industries. We’ll be in the middle of a meeting and he’ll turn and smile at me and go off on an excited rant. ‘Brucie this, Brucie that, guess what Bruce said today, oh hulk and I had a chat it was fun’. There is no one in the world that Tony cares more about than Bruce. I wish when we dated, he’d care that much for me,” she said almost sadly, looking at the confused faces of the team.

Natasha glanced at the others. “So why did you have to have an ultra-secret private meeting with JARVIS sworn to secrecy?”

No matter how they looked at it, that was suspect. Pepper had shown up and Tony had jumped up from the table and ran to her, hugging her like an excited puppy seeing his owner after a long trip. He then drug her by the arm to one of the private conference rooms, and when the team had asked JARVIS what was happing, he told them that Sir was in a private meeting. Clint had rolled his eyes and mouthed “private meeting” with air quotes and everything. They all imagined that Tony was having sex with her in that private meeting.

Pepper shook her head. “That’s what this is about? Oh my god, really? Fine, it was supposed to be a surprise, but since you guys seem to be unable to trust Tony, I’m pregnant. Happy and I are getting married next month at the Malibu house and I’m due in September. We were planning to fly everyone to Malibu as a surprise for the wedding and to announce the baby. Tony was so excited because he wanted to surprise Bruce since he’s never been to the Malibu house and because their anniversary is the weekend after the one Happy and I are getting married. He was planning to take Bruce on a special anniversary dinner on the yacht early as a surprise. He was having me schedule the yacht and make the arrangements for it, the food, music, everything,” she said, glaring at them with an accusatory stare.  

She was starting to grow annoyed at them. Really, they were going to accuse Tony of something like this? Sure, Tony had been all those things and worse, after all, she’d cleaned up the messes and sent the harlots home afterward. She saw the face of a man, though, that was looking for something he couldn’t find, and the face of someone desperately needed to be taken care of and cared about in a way that someone like Pepper just couldn’t. Since the day he’d come to her in the office, his face wide and open for the first time since she’d known him, and asked what she thought Bruce would say if he asked him on a date.

Thor smiled. “See, I believed in the man of Iron. He truly loves Bruce beyond all else.”

Steve felt bad that he hadn’t trusted him, though, to be honest, he hadn’t not trusted him, he had simply remained neutral. “Still it doesn’t explain the huge fight they had yesterday, whatever it was, Tony spent over twenty four hours locked in the workshop and Bruce was in the hulk room for six.”

She arched a brow at him. “What the hell did Bruce do?” she said.

Both Natasha and Clint’s eyes snapped to her. “What did Bruce do? Why do you think it was Bruce and not Tony?” Natasha said, her voice wavering somewhat with a distinct lack of surity.

Pepper stared at them, eyes moving from one to another. “Really? You’ve lived with him three years and you haven’t figured this out? When Tony hides, he’s hurt or upset about something, usually having someone wrong him. When he walks around and gets obnoxious and loud, he’s the one who’s wrong. He puffs up and jokes about him being an asshole and tries to play it off as nothing big, and just a part of his personality. If he locked himself into the workshop for that long, Bruce did something really, really bad. What did he say when he came out?”

Steve stared at her for a long moment. She was completely sincere in what she said and Steve’s heart began to race. “Nothing, really, he said he’d fallen asleep and he just went up to their room… I got onto him for locking himself in for that long and making everyone worry but…he really didn’t say anything about it.”

Pepper closed her eyes and sighed and started to speak again when JARVIS interrupted the conversation. “I am afraid I must interrupt. I have detected an arrhythmia in Sir’s heart function.”

Pepper frowned and looked upward, even though, of course, there was no face for her to look at when it came to the AI. “Is the reactor still active?”

“It is active and fully functional. The source of the arrhythmia seems to be organic in nature.”

Pepper nodded, so it wasn’t to do with the reactor. “What is his current medical status, JARVIS?”

“I only have access to Sir’s heart and neurological functions and reactor status. I do not know the details of Sir’s full medical condition.”

Pepper’s brow wrinkled. “Why not JARVIS? Your sensors should be able to get basic bio signs on everyone here.”

“Sir has deactivated all monitoring in some areas of the tower and he is currently within one of those areas. Protocols prohibit scanning of Sir’s medical condition.”

“What?” she asked, starting to worry a lot now about what was happening to him. “Why the hell did he do that?”

“That is unknown, Ms. Potts,” the AI responded. “Sensors are deactivated in Mr. Banner’s lab, Sir’s bedroom, and the hulk room.”

Pepper shook her head, that didn’t sound right. “All sensors, JARVIS? Not just the camera and voice recorders?”

“Yes, Ms. Potts. No sensors are active in those areas. Security sensors, motion sensors, scanners, cameras, recorders, and my interfaces have all be deactivated and removed completely. I have no way to access information on those areas.”

Pepper turned to the others, and saw that everyone wore a confused expression. She was going to have a serious sit down with the two assassins later. Thor and Steve couldn’t be expected to understand things as easily as they could. They should have definitely noticed that there had been breeches in the security system.

“Natasha, Clint, check the hulk room. Thor, please check Bruce’s lab. Cap, let’s see if he’s in their room. We need to find out what’s going on with his heart.”

The group separated and they headed to the elevators. Steve followed Pepper and stepped inside as she pushed the button for the floor where Tony’s private room and lab were located.

“Why would he deactivate sensors in those areas?” Steve asked her.

“He’s hiding something,” she said. “It worries me. This isn’t him trying to hide him and Bruce’s private life. He’s taken out the security system and JARVIS from those areas. He never does something like that,” she said as the doors closed. “There is no reason that I can think of to remove all security features from any area of the tower.”

“Do you think this heart thing might be related to the hit he took from the Doombots the other day? He had a nasty bruise on his shoulder,” Steve said. “Maybe it did something to his heart?”

Pepper looked at him with a confused expression. “Steve, he didn’t have any bruise on his shoulder after that fight. I was here the next morning, that’s when we met about the Malibu stuff. He didn’t have a mark on him. Unless the exterior of the suit is damaged, he doesn’t get injured in it.”

Steve shrugged, not wanting to consider such a large bruise mark could have come from anywhere else. “He was in one of his tanks when I saw it, maybe it was under his clothes.

Pepper shook her head. “He was in his tank then. There was nothing on him, Steve. Nothing at all.”

Steve frowned as they exited the elevator and came to the door. Pepper held up a hand. “JARVIS, what is the location of Bruce Banner.”

“Unknown, however he is not in Avenger tower. He was registered leaving in hulk form twenty minutes ago.”

“What? He hulked out again?” Steve said frowning.

Pepper sighed and knocked. “If they were arguing over whatever happened, it might have caused it.”

They waited and knocked again. “JARVIS, has Tony left?”

“No Ms. Potts, Tony is still in Avengers’ tower. His heart rate is getting weaker, however. I advise expediency.”

“Tony!” Steve called as he turned the knob finding it locked. “Tony, are you in there?” he asked. Still no answer.

“Steve, I’m worried, bust it open. If he’s okay, we’ll deal with it,” she said, stepping back.

Steve nodded and rammed the door twice with his shoulder before the lock broke and he stumbled into the dark room. “Tony?” he said, eyes settling on the bed where there was a lump under a layer of covers.

Pepper came in behind him and flicked the light switch. Steve went over to the bed where Tony was covered with the plush black comforter. He shook him through the covers. “Hey Tony, are you okay?” he asked, hoping that he was.

Tony groaned and gasped. “Go’way Bruce…” he muttered half asleep by the sound. “Hurts too much already…”

Steve frowned and looked across the bed to see Pepper’s face had gone pale. She was staring at the bed. Steve leaned over and saw what had caught her attention. The sheets were stained with blood where they emerged from under the dark comforter.

Steve kneeled down and pulled at the comforter where it was pulled over Tony’s head. Tony grabbed it and shook his head. “No, go’way, too tired. Do whatever, let me sleep…” came the muffled reply.

“Tony, it’s Steve, I need to see if you’re okay,” he said softly, pulling a bit harder on the cover.

“Sorry, Bruce,” he muttered, yanking on the cover again, pulling it down off the crown of his head a bit so that Steve could see his eyes a bit in the shadows of the cover. “Don’t do that, hurts Bruce…not again…” he muttered and rolled to his back finally, the covers flopping down off his face and chest; both Pepper and Steve stepped back in shock.

He was pale, extremely so, and his nose had crusted blood around it and both eyes had started to blacken around it. The bruise that Steve had seen stood out bright against the pallor of his skin. His face was sweaty and flushed. A deep purple ring had formed around his neck, almost red in places. Blood was still leaking from a nasty mark on his neck and his nose was still trickling. Steve leaned over and picked him up in the comforter and rushed past Pepper’s frozen form out into the hallway. Steve still wasn’t the best with technology but he understood that JARVIS couldn’t tell what was wrong in there. Pepper stepped out beside him.

“JARVIS!” she said.

“Sir has lost significant blood. He has a broken nose, and both zygomatic bones are fractured. His blood pressure is falling rapidly due to blood loss. It is advisable to give Sir a transfusion immediately and stop the cause of current blood loss.”

Steve frowned and took off toward the medical bay. “JARVIS have the others meet us there, and send up someone from Stark’s medical file to help him. No, don’t send anyone, we need to find out what happened. Where is the blood loss coming from?” he asked as he got into the medical bay and put Tony on the table with the medical scanner.

“Sir is losing blood from internal injury.”

Steve frowned. “JARVIS, I figured that, what kind of injury? You didn’t say he had a punctured lung or damaged organs.”

“Sir has blood loss from internal injury. Protocol has prohibited me from detailing further,” JARVIS said with an almost apologetic tone. “I advise medical personnel be alerted.”

Pepper frowned, having come in just behind the faster Steve. “JARVIS, who gave you that protocol?”

“Sir, did, Ms. Potts.”

Just then the rest of the team came running into the room and stopped short. Natasha, who had the most medical training of them, ran to the diagnostic machine. “Where the hell is Bruce?” she asked as Clint stepped up beside Steve and Pepper.

Pepper shook her head. “JARVIS said he hulked and left like that. That’s really usual for him, even when the other guy is in control.”

Clint frowned and looked at Thor. “Can you go see if you can find him?” he asked. “We need to know what the hell happened. Did he hulk out and attack Tony?”

Thor nodded and took off for the balcony he used to launch himself when he went to pursue him. Finding Bruce would only be possible for him since Hulk could leap and run faster than the others. With Thor’s flight, he could catch up to him, and hopefully convince him to come back to the Tower, or at least calm him into turning into Bruce again.

“No idea, but…” Natasha’s voice broke and she stopped and stared at the screen. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck,” she muttered. “JARVIS, why didn’t you tell us? You can see exactly what’s wrong with him.”

“Sir is losing blood from internal injury,” JARVIS repeated.

“Steve, grab the cart in the back with Tony’s name on it, hurry, it has two bags of his blood, damn,” she said, reaching behind her and running a line for the blood and another for saline. Her fingers hesitated over the darkening bruise that was forming on his forearm.  

“Shit, shit, we need a surgeon, now,” she said, starting a pic line and shaking herself out of her hesitation. “Hand me a morphine vial,” she told Clint. He stared at her. “I don’t care if he’s not supposed to have narcotics, now, Clint!” she practically yelled. Clint moved, retrieving the vial. “JARVIS, where’s the strongest anti-biotic Bruce has on hand?”

“Third cabinet, red label, Ms. Romanoff,” he intoned.

“Get it,” she said as Clint handed her the vial and she injected the IV line with a large dose.

Pepper shook her head. “Natasha, what is going on? What’s wrong with him?”

“Cap, have Fury bring the helicarrier, that’s the closest trauma team Tony will trust.   He’s not going to want anywhere public for this. I think they’re in close enough range, I can hold this until then, but I can’t stop the bleeding without a surgeon,” she said, as Steve pushed the cart up next to her. He nodded and pulled out a phone and dialed the number as she worked on getting the transfusion flowing.

“Natasha, you’ve got to explain what’s happened,” Steve said, turning back to her. “Fury wants to know what’s going on before he heads to us.”

She reached out and took the phone. “Get here. No, just get here. I don’t know exactly what happened. My guess? Bruce hulked out on him, maybe at a really inappropriate time by the looks. I wish it were that simple, Director,” she said, glancing at the others as she started to peel away the comforter that Steve had wrapped him in. Steve’s face had the remains of color run out of it. “Internal hemorrhage, from what I can tell, but JARVIS won’t confirm. Seems Tony’s locked his protocols. Well, I think you can figure out that answer, sir. I would say so. Um…just get here.” She sat down the phone and looked up to lock eyes with Steve who had a similar expression.

The bruised shoulder that Steve had seen wasn’t the only older mark Tony was sporting. A greenish hand shaped bruise was fading on the left side of his ribcage, and a bright purple bruise that had distinct finger impressions dimpling the skin almost to the point of splitting it marked his left thigh. The area around his neck had almost turned a garish red-purple, and his breathing was starting to become labored. His waist was also marked by a deep, four inch wide mark that ran across right above his pubic bone. By now he’d completely passed out and had stabilized, but only because of the fact he was being given blood and fluids. His legs and lower torso was covered in blood and it was painfully obvious why.   Steve gently reached down and traced a series of round brownish bruises that ran down the outside of his right leg, and saw a pair of deep greenish bruises on his hips accented where nails had dug into his flesh enough to leave cuts that had become infected.

“The hulk didn’t do this,” Pepper said, placing her hand on the mark on his ribs. The print wasn’t much larger than her own. She looked up at Steve. “This was Bruce.”

 


	2. When the Truth Explodes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edits possible, first draft. Thanks for reading!

 

_Monday Morning, around 3 am_

Thor wasn’t sure where he was going to find Bruce. It was uncertain exactly where he would go. He kept in mind he wasn’t looking for Bruce, though. Hulk had a completely different mindset and he had to remember that. So after a few hours he landed on an outcropping in northern New York state, and thought about where he should look. Hulk might have thought he hurt Tony, and he may have actually hurt Tony, Thor wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. He just knew that Tony was seriously injured for some reason and only Bruce or perhaps the Hulk could give an explanation. Surely, by now, though, Bruce had taken back over. If he had, though, he should have called in, and he hadn’t done that yet.

Three years working with the Avengers had taught Thor a lot about Midgard, and his friends. He mostly spent his time in Asgard, but he came down to visit once in a while and he couldn’t help but get involved in their lives. He spent time with Jane now and then, but he enjoyed his time just watching movies and spending time with the others. Of course, the battles he fought beside them were noteworthy as well. However, things had been different since Bruce and Tony had been married. Tony had grown more reserved and Bruce had become even more obsessed with his research on gamma radiation. Thor wondered at their relationship. On Asgard, men were not often paired together. It was allowed for women like Lady Sif to take the place of a warrior and fight, however, for a man to take the place of a woman was taboo. He’d grown used to this on Midgard, though. Honestly, he thought of neither Bruce nor Tony as “woman” in their relationship.

There was a crash somewhere in the northern forest and he took off toward it. He found what he suspected. Hulk was tearing apart a small grove of trees in frustration and anger. That explained why Bruce hadn’t returned. But what in the world had Hulk so angry? Were the others right and Tony had had relations with another? Pepper seemed to think that wasn’t so. Was Bruce angry about something else?

“Hulk!” he called, dropping down near to him but not close enough to get hit. Starting a fight with him certainly wouldn’t help Tony.

He stopped and looked at Thor and didn’t move. Thor came up to him slowly, but with Mjolnir at the ready behind him.

“Hulking one, we must go back. The Man of Iron is very injured. They wish to know what has happened to him,” he said. “It would be best if Bruce were able to return control.”

Hulk leaned back and roared loudly. “Bruce not control!” he screamed at Thor. “Hulk stay hulk! Hulk no hurt Tony!”

Thor blinked. “What do you mean?” That was not the answer he was expecting. Hulk was actively trying not to let Bruce have control.

Hulk leaned forward and glared at Thor. “Hulk stay angry, hulk smash trees!”

Thor nodded. “You do not wish to calm down because Bruce will take back control,” Thor said. “Why? Why do you not wish to let Bruce back?”

“Bruce hurt Tony too much! Bruce bad, make Tony cry too many times,” he said with a snarl. “Hulk love Tony. Bruce hurt Tony. Hulk not let Bruce hurt Tony.”

Thor blinked. “Bruce did that? Bruce hurt him tonight?”

A tree exploded as it seemed the Hulk’s anger rose even higher. “Bruce…made Hulk hurt Tony. Hulk hate Bruce!”

Thor stepped back as Hulk went to smashing more trees. That wasn’t what he had expected. Bruce made hulk hurt Tony, he said. He shook his head and took off. He didn’t understand what that meant. Hulk hadn’t wanted Tony to be hurt, but somehow Bruce made him do something that injured him. He wasn’t sure how that could happen since they were completely separate personalities. He was sure that Bruce couldn’t force Hulk into doing things no matter how hard he tried. He knew where he was, if necessary he’d bring back the hulk tranquilizers with Clint. For now, though, he thought it more important to let the others know what he’d said and see if it made any sense at all.

Hulk flopped to the ground and growled. In the back of his simplistic mind, Bruce fought for control. However, the mindset the hulk was in didn’t allow it.

“Bruce bad,” he muttered, more to the other part of himself.

 _Stop this! Calm down, this has no purpose…_ the tiny one’s voice said in his mind.

“Bruce bad, Bruce hurt Tony.”

 _Look, I’ll apologize to him, I’ll make it better, okay?_ He said then.

“No make better. You hurt Tony too many times.”

_Hulk, please, you don’t understand what it’s like. Things aren’t as simple as you think they are._

“Very simple. Love Tony, no hurt Tony. Simple.”

The voice was quiet for a long time. _Something’s wrong with me, I think. I can’t…I can’t explain it. I can’t not hurt Tony, so just…calm down and I’ll go back, and run tests and…_

“No!” Hulk roared, feeling Bruce trying to resume control. He stood and ripped a tree up by the roots. “No go back, ever. No hurt Tony!” he bellowed.

_Monday morning, 4 am_

Thor landed on the ledge just as the helicarrier arrived overhead. He stepped inside to see the other Avengers, rushing out toward the helipad to load Tony into a helicopter that had just landed.

Steve grabbed him by the arm. “Come on, talk on the helicarrier, we’ve got to hurry.”

Thor nodded, not arguing as everyone was shuffled into the helicopter and before long they were on the helicarrier. Natasha and Pepper stayed with Tony as he was ushered into the medical wing. Thor, Steve and Clint all entered a conference room where Nick Fury and Maria Hill were both already waiting.

“Status?” Fury said as they sat down.

Steve swallowed. “Natasha managed to keep him stable, but just barely. We had two bags of Tony’s blood, and used another three of O blood to keep him from dying while we were waiting to get him into a surgeon. She didn’t have the knowledge to do the surgery he needs.”

“What are the extent of his injuries?” he asked, looking at the file.

“Natasha didn’t say much, just that he was bleeding internally. I think…I think hulk was at fault for what happened,” Clint said softly.

Thor shook his head. “Hulk is very angry, I found him, and he refuses to let Bruce return. He says that Bruce made him hurt Tony. I am unsure what that means. Bruce has never been able to control the Hulk’s actions.”

Fury looked at him. “What the hell is going on around here? What does he think he’s doing, keeping Bruce at bay? He’s dangerous like that!”

Thor sighed. “Hulk says that Bruce hurt Tony many times and he won’t let him do it again, that Bruce made Hulk hurt Tony this eve,” he said, as the door opened and Natasha came into the room, looking paler than before.

Fury looked at her. “What is going on?”

Natasha shook her head. “I…I…he’s in surgery. He’s…I can’t even describe it, Director.”

“Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Fury exclaimed with an annoyed sigh.

“I think I can,” came Pepper’s voice as she entered and shut the door behind her, patting Natasha on the shoulder. “I’ll handle it, Natasha,” she said, sitting down slowly.

“I think I noticed it a few months ago. Tony wasn’t really himself, and he played it off that he wasn’t feeling well. I realized he had a mark on his arm, and I asked him. He waved it off, saying he’d been mucking about with the suit and something fell on him. But it didn’t look like it to me, but he wouldn’t let me look closer. He started to be less and less talkative, then. I just…I thought he was tired. I should have asked more questions. He’d skip work some days after that every few weeks, claiming he’d caught a bug or something. I thought he was just goofing off in the shop and didn’t want to come to boring meetings. I should have asked questions then, too. Then when he called me about the Malibu trip, he was so excited, and he said something that I didn’t pay much attention to at the time, and I really should have,” she said, running a hand over her red hair.

Everyone was watching her carefully.   “He said he wanted to make Bruce happy again. That was all, and I didn’t think much of it. But the way he said it, to make him happy again, I don’t know. Just didn’t sound right.”

There was a buzz from the intercom and Maria left for a moment. “He was just so excited about the trip and couldn’t wait for the baby to be born,” she put her hand over her belly as she spoke. “So excited to be Uncle Tony, he said. I teased him that he and Bruce should go adopt one, after all, he has the money and his face fell and he shook his head saying that that wouldn’t be a good idea, he wasn’t father material. I just smiled and told him that was silly, he had Bruce to help. I didn’t know how much that had to hurt him.”

Maria came back in and handed Fury a folder. He glanced down at it, seeing it was the report from the triage team. “What the fuck…” he muttered, looking up at the team. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Natasha looked away, as did Clint. Steve glanced at them and reached for the file, which Fury handed to him. He closed his eyes. It was as they had feared. The surgery was in process to repair the damage, but still.

“How the fuck did that happen?” Fury said, looking between them. “His insides look like someone ripped him open.”

Pepper nodded, tears starting to fall. “Bruce. It wasn’t even the Hulk, Nick. It was Bruce. He…he transformed in the middle of being intimate with Tony, and that…that’s what did it. Bruce said that couldn’t happen, he promised me that when he went out for the first time with Tony. It was after Tony told me that he had decided that he didn’t want to be top in their relationship, at least not at first. That scared me to death, knowing about the hulk and the incredible size difference between Bruce and him. I remember that I asked him, what if you lose control when you’re in the bedroom? He told me that it was impossible because the hulk was a rage beast and sex wasn’t rage driven, so it couldn’t happen. He swore to me there was no way that he could change into the hulk while they were intimate with each other, and no way the hulk could ever even be intimate with someone else anyway because the act would force Bruce to the surface.”

Thor looked up. “That’s what hulk said,” he said looking at them. “Hulk was angry, saying that he loved Tony and that Bruce made him hurt Tony. Bruce changed on purpose…”

“But why?” Steve said. “Why would Bruce do something like that? He had to know how that would hurt Tony, it could have killed him if we hadn’t found him when we did.”

“You saw the bruises on him, Steve, don’t be that oblivious,” Clint said, looking away. “We’re all a bunch of fucking idiots. I can’t…he hid it from us completely. Even cutting off JARVIS.”

Pepper looked up. “JARVIS,” she said. “He might know something,” she said, pulling out her phone and activating the interface.

Steve shook his head. “He was unable to help us before…”

Pepper shook her head. “We weren’t asking the right questions. Tony rewrote his protocols after this started, no doubt there was something that happened that made him change things. If we find that file…”

“Ms. Potts,” came Jarvis’s smooth voice over the tablet. “May I assist you?”

“JARVIS, when did Tony change your protocols on monitoring his physical condition?” she asked.

“Protocols were changed four months, six days, twenty one hours and seven minutes ago.”

“Do you have a backup copy of the surveillance that happened twenty four hours before protocols were altered?” she asked, looking at the others.

“Affirmative. Lockout code seven six three,” he commented.

Pepper smiled. “Transfer the surveillance involving Tony and Bruce to SHIELD database, code seven two one Potts.”

“Affirmative, transfer complete.”

“JARVIS, does Tony know you had a backup copy?” she asked.

“Sir did not inquire about backup copies of those files.”

She grinned. “JARVIS, you sneaky AI. I swear you’re more human than any of us give you credit for.”

“I am unsure what you mean, Ms. Potts.”

“Thank you, JARVIS,” she said with a smile.

She went to the monitor on the table and brought up the file, and started going through it until she frowned. “Oh…”

“What is it?” Steve said from across the table.

“I think we should all see this,” she said quietly, pushing the buttons to put it on the larger monitor behind them.

_The “Incident”_

“Tony, where have you been?” Bruce asked as Tony came into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. The timestamp read seven am. “You didn’t come home last night.”

Tony sat down beside Bruce and put his head on his shoulder. “I know, Brucie, sorry about that. The charity event went on far too late, so I ended up crashing on Pepper’s couch. She didn’t trust my driving and absolutely refused to let me fly.”

“I see,” Bruce said, sipping his tea.

Tony turned and smiled at him. “How’s the work on the gamma testing gone?” he asked. “I wasn’t even sure you’d notice I wasn’t home with how much you’re locked up in the lab with that brat.”

Bruce glared at him. “Peter is an incredibly intelligent student. I’m very glad to have someone that understands my work and can help me.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Jeeze, Brucie, I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m glad you found someone to tutor and teach. I think it’s awesome, but why don’t you want me to come by while he’s here?”

“It would be distracting. Peter has a hero worship thing for you, and I can’t get him to concentrate if you’re around.”

He smiled at him. “Well, I am that awesome, aren’t I?” he said and winked at him.

He went to stand up and Bruce grabbed him by the arm. Tony winced and looked down at him. “Ouch, jeeze, Brucie, you been working out, that hurts…” he commented, pulling at him. “Come on, that really does hurt, Brucie.”

Bruce let go and Tony shook his head and went into the kitchen to grab a box of pop tarts. He grinned across the table at Bruce. “Ha, I’ll take these to the workshop, will drive Thor nuts when he sees we’re out of them.”

Bruce tilted his head to the side. “You do like to drive everyone nuts, Tony,” he said seriously.

“Well, that’s part of my charm!” he said and kissed Bruce on the cheek before he took off to the elevator. Bruce sat there for a long time and stared at the hand he’d grabbed Tony’s arm with, flexing his fingers thoughtfully.

Tony meanwhile was massaging his arm as he headed down to the workshop. He lifted his sleeve and frowned at the spreading bruise. “Christ, Bruce, the hell is up with that…” he muttered, then shook his head and went to work.

Bruce went to his lab and Peter Parker was already there. “Hey, Doctor Banner!” the brunette teen said as he entered.

Bruce nodded to him. “You don’t have to call me that, Peter,” he said as he went up to him and pulled him to stand in front of him and began kissing him passionately.

“Um, Doctor, so forceful, today, sure your husband’s out of pocket?” Peter said, panting and blushing.

“Shut up, Peter, I’m not in the mood to talk about Tony. On your knees,” he said, unbuckling his pants and shoving the younger man down.

“Whatever you say, doc,” Peter said and smiled as he dove down on his lover.

Tony headed back up to the bedroom sometime later after working for a few hours on a misbehaving joint in his glove. He found Bruce already there, sitting with his back to the door. He came over and crawled onto the bed and hugged him from behind.

“Hey Brucie,” he said with a grin.

To Tony’s shock, Bruce’s elbow snapped back and went right into Tony’s ribs, making him gasp and fall off his back onto the bed.

“Damn, Bruce!” he gasped, holding his midsection. “What’s up with you today?”

“You, Tony, always you. Why do you have to be such a slut?” he growled, turning to him.

Tony looked hurt. “What? Bruce, I don’t understand. I…I haven’t done anything since we’ve been together, why would you call me that?”

“Because you are one, Tony. Once a fucking slut, always a fucking slut. I trusted you to change that, and you spend the night away on your whore of an ex’s couch. Supposedly on her couch,” he said, turning blazing eyes on Tony.

“But…but Bruce, that’s not true, Pepper’s with Happy now, I don’t…she wasn’t what I wanted, remember, you were,” he said, pulling up to sit on his knees.

“I don’t believe anything you say anymore, Tony,” Bruce said, turning and slapping him.

Tony’s hand went to his face. “Wha…” he muttered, a completely confused look crossing his face. “Bruce, I don’t…I’ve stayed over there dozens of times since we’ve been married, it never bothered you before!” he exclaimed.

“You with your flirting and touching and making everyone just fawn all over you while I stay here in the Tower…” he muttered. “You can’t even stop doing it when I’m with you. Smiling at people and touching them and letting them touch you…”

Tony shook his head. “But…that’s for show, you know that. I don’t even like doing that stuff, but I have to keep up with the social circuit or the investors lose confidence in Stark Industries. If they don’t see me, things go bad…”

Bruce moved and shoved him backward, his head slamming into the headboard and he cried out. “Dammit, Bruce, what is wrong with you?” he said as Bruce pressed him down on his back by his shoulders.

“You are what’s wrong, Tony, you, always you,” he growled and leaned down and kissed him. Tony blinked in surprise then shook his head and pushed him back. “No, Bruce, you don’t get to sit there and call me a slut to my face and think I’m going to let you kiss me like that. Now, get off, I’m gonna just sleep in the lab until you cool off,” he said, trying to push his arms up.

Bruce picked up one of his hands from his shoulder but instead of letting him up, slammed a fist down into his side. Tony gasped and looked at him with shock as he did it again.

“You are going nowhere, Tony. You are going to figure out what happens when you act like a slut,” he said, letting go and sitting back.

Tony, though was clutching his ribs and gasping for breath. “Bruce! Fuck, you broke my rib, I think, what…” his complaints were staunched when Bruce slapped him again and started to undo Tony’s jeans.

Tony’s eyes went wide and despite the pain he was in he grabbed at Bruce’s hands. “Oh, no, we’re not doing this, Bruce, let me go, I don’t want…”

Bruce moved one hand and pressed it into Tony’s throat. “No. You want to be a slut? I get to treat you like a slut. Be still.”

Tony, of course, wasn’t about to be still. He started to kick at him and try and shove him off even more. “I’m not…in…the mood…let…me go…” he stammered as he struggled with him. “Why…why are you so strong…you…aren’t hulking…”

“No, I’m not hulking,” he commented, finally managing the button on Tony’s jeans and he let go of his throat enough to work them off his hips.   Tony took the chance to roll to his stomach and try to pull away and scramble across the bed.

“Don’t you fucking run from me,” Bruce said and pulled him back, straddling the back of his thighs.

“Bruce, stop it! This is wrong, I don’t want this right now, and you can’t force me to do this!” he said, turning to look over his shoulder.

“Oh? I can’t force you? I’m married to you, remember? I’ll fuck your slutty ass anytime I want to, whether you want me to or not,” he muttered, undoing his own trousers as Tony stared at him in disbelief.

He reached to the side table and grabbed the lube. He stared at it for a long moment before he coated his fingers. He didn’t even bother to say anything before he forced the slicked digits into Tony. “Ah! Bruce, stop it! That’s too rough!” he whimpered into the bed, he’d stopped struggling to get away; he knew he was trapped.

“I don’t care, Tony,” he said, moving off him and flipping him over and sliding up between his legs. He grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head and pressed his legs upward. “I’ll be rough. I’ll fuck you until you bleed, if I want, remember that, Tony,” he growled, using his free hand to coat himself with the lube and then slamming forward into him.

“Ow, stop, Bruce, I can’t…you can’t…” he whimpered until Bruce put his free hand over his mouth.

“Shut up, Tony. Shut your whore mouth for fifteen fucking minutes,” Bruce said as Tony’s eyes welled with tears.

When he was finished Bruce got up and went to the bathroom, leaving Tony on the bed. He grabbed the sheets and wrapped them around him and waited as the shower ran.

“Sir, you are injured,” came JARVIS in the quiet room.

“I’m fine, JARVIS,” he said.

“Sir, you have a broken rib and a hairline fracture of your right hip. You should see medical,” JARVIS said.

“Shut up, JARVIS,” he growled. “You know what, from now on, unless it has something to do with my head, my heart, or my arc reactor, you’re not allowed to mention it.”

JARVIS responded. “Sir, that is not advisable…”

“That’s new protocol, Stark gamma six.”

“Confirmed, sir,” came JARVIS.

Bruce came out in his robe a few moments later and came to the bed. He sat down and reached out for Tony but he flinched away from him.

“Tony, oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry. I…I just lost control, and I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

Tony shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Bruce reached out and brushed the dampness off his face. “No, you aren’t. I can tell you’re in pain. Come on, let me see.”

Tony let the sheet fall off where a rapidly purpling mark was spreading over the broken rib. Bruce sighed, touching it. He got up and came back and wrapped him up carefully, and gave him a couple pain pills and a glass of water.

“Here, Tony, I’m sorry, really, it won’t happen again. I just…you make me see red sometimes, you know?” he said, brushing a hand over Tony’s head very gently. “You just…you get under my skin sometimes.”

Everyone present stared at the screen in shock. The video had been someone grainy; of course, it wasn’t high quality, after all. The next section was Tony in the workshop, asking JARVIS to remove the surveillance footage from the day before and setting up the new protocols on the hulk room, the lab, and their bedroom.

Fury turned to them after the video ended. “You live there and you didn’t notice this.”

Clint and Natasha exchanged glances. “Bruce has been surly but Tony just pisses people off, I mean what else would be expected?”

Pepper had put her head in her hands. “I knew it, and to see it, I just…why didn’t he say anything?” she said softly.

“My guess is he thought he was wrong,” Steve said, staring at his hands. How many times had he got onto Tony for getting Bruce angry? How many times had he told him he needed to make sure that Bruce didn’t get too upset because he was dangerous when he wasn’t stable?

Pepper nodded. “He…oh God,” she said, closing her eyes.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

_Monday Morning, around 8 am_

Peter Parker was honestly just after knowledge when he met Bruce. The day that Bruce Banner, _the_ Bruce Banner, came to speak at his school, he thought he was going to die right on the spot of excitement. The two people that Peter wanted to meet and speak to most in the world were Dr. Banner and Tony Stark. However, Bruce was special. Tony had the gadgets and was amazing with technology, but Bruce was more about organics. This was the man with the most knowledge of gamma radiation in the world. He was also one of the Avengers. For the seventeen year old high school junior, it was a dream come true to meet one of his idols. He’d been among the hundreds that had gathered when Bruce married Tony Stark and Peter was floored. Not only was his idol amazing, an Avenger, but he was _gay_. It gave him the strength to finally reveal his own sexual preference and apologize to Mary Jane for not telling her sooner. He was forgiven, of course, and MJ was his best friend still. She even didn’t mind his new, strange friends.

Since then, he’d even been allowed into training by SHIELD along with a group of younger superheroes, and though they drove him nuts, he loved it. He spent all his spare time with Bruce or on the helicarrier with the other younger superheroes. He honestly thought that Danny and Sam enjoyed messing with him and teasing him. Danny Rand, or Iron Fist, was so laid back and was often referred to as Fortune Cookie because of the way he spoke. Sam Alexander was Nova, and he just pissed Peter off most the time. Their fourth member, Ava Ayala was White Tiger, and their fifth was Luke Cage, Power Man. He enjoyed his time with them, but he had to admit, being around the real Avengers was even better.

“Pete!” Mary Jane said, jogging up to him where he was leaning against his locker. The school year was almost over and his graduation was coming up, but after what happened with Bruce over the weekend, he was out of it.

He looked over. “Hey, MJ,” he said morosely.

She frowned. “Pete, what’s wrong? You look like your best friend just died and I’m right here,” she said with a smile.

He sighed. Mary Jane didn’t know about Spiderman and she certainly didn’t know about Bruce Banner and the work he’d been doing at Avengers Tower. She did know he had an older boyfriend, though.

“Oh, BB and I were together this weekend and…got walked in on,” he said with a sigh.

BB was what he referred to Bruce when he talked to his friends. She looked scandalized and grabbed his hand and pulled him into an empty classroom. “Details!” she said.

Peter shifted uncomfortably. “Well, you know, he’s a science nerd, like me, and he has a lab, you know, I’ve told you that. Well, we were working on something and one thing led to the other and well,” he blushed and ran a hand over his brown hair. “It was pretty intense and we didn’t notice when the door opened and then heard a crash and…”

“Who was it? BB’s family?” she asked, eyes wide.

“Worse…there’s something you don’t know, um, BB…he’s actually…um, married,” he said, not looking her in the face.

Her eyes went wide. “Peter Parker!” she exclaimed and her face changed to a mask of anger. “You are not seriously telling me that you’ve been seeing a married man for the last six months.”

Peter shifted. “They aren’t happy, he…he can’t satisfy him, and BB said that it…it was nice to have someone that he could spend time with and not…you know, have to worry about certain things like he does with his husband.”

“Peter, no. You don’t see married men. I don’t care how unhappy they are, if he’s unhappy, he should get a divorce before he starts seeing other men,” she said, glaring at him. “He’s playing you and his husband both if you think anything different.”

Peter looked up. “But I love him, MJ! We…we just connect to each other…he said…he said he’s never connected to another like me…”

MJ frowned deeply. “And you believe that bullshit? I bet he used the same line on his husband. How long has he been married?”

Peter hesitated and looked away. “About a year, and they’ve been a thing for another,” he said. That sounded really crappy when he said it out loud.

“Peter!” she exclaimed and put both hands on his shoulders and forced him to look at her. “They’ve been married a year and he’s already cheating on him with a high school student? Look, I’ve kept quiet so far about this. I want to see you happy, and BB seemed to make you happy, but dammit, Peter, you won’t even tell me how much older he is than you. You just say it’s more than ten years. Well that’s a lot, Peter. I didn’t like that to start. And I don’t like that you can’t even use his name. If he’s ashamed of you, that’s not right. And now I understand, you can’t tell people because he’s a married man. Peter, what is wrong with you?”

“But…but…I love…” he started.

“No, fuck that, Peter. You _think_ you love him. Who is he? I want to know, right now.”

Peter swallowed, looking sheepish. “I can’t tell you, you…you know who he is.”

“Now, Peter,” she said, her gaze like steel.

Peter couldn’t help the words from tumbling in a whisper. “B-Bruce B-Banner…”

“Peter! No!” she said with a gasp. “You have got to be kidding me, please tell me that’s not true.”

He crossed his arms and looked away. “You have been sleeping with _Tony_ fucking _Stark’s_ husband?” she exclaimed. “The Avengers? You are sleeping with the guy that turns into a giant freaking green monster?” she said. “That’s where you keep disappearing to when I can’t find you, isn’t it? To the Avengers tower.”

Peter couldn’t look at her. He just nodded.

“Tell me why the hell Bruce Banner, who is married to one of the single most desirable men in the world in the eyes of both men and women, would be fucking a goddamned teenage boy?” she said, her voice rising.

“MJ, hush, someone’s going to hear you,” he said. When she put it that way, it did sound really bad.

“Peter, you don’t understand. You aren’t just sleeping with a married man. You’re mixed up in people that could crush you, and you say _Tony Stark,_ freaking _Iron Man_ himself, walked on while you were in the middle of fucking with his husband?” she said.

Peter’s face went red and he nodded. He couldn’t tell her that he wasn’t in danger; after all, he had more power than Tony did outside the suit. He wasn’t afraid of him. “Tony’s a pushover,” he said with a shrug.   “He’s really not all that like you think he is. Bruce says he’s kind of wussy outside that fancy armor. He does everything Bruce says without question. He says it’s really annoying and he wishes he’d just take initiative once in a while.”

MJ arched a brow. “And you don’t think that’s a little suspect, Peter? Really, you’ve mooned over Tony for years; talking about him as your hero and how you were dying to meet him because he was so awesome, and then you…you do this. You know more about Tony Stark than anyone I know. How can you do this to him? How can you do this to anyone?”

Peter felt a wave of guilt. He’d been struggling for the last few weeks with it. There was this look that crossed Bruce’s face when he’d talk about Tony. Well, when he’d complain about Tony. It seemed half of their time together was spent with Bruce complaining about things that Tony had done and the ways in which the infernal man annoyed him. The other half was spent with Bruce fucking him into the nearest surface until he could barely walk, especially lately he’d been getting more forceful and almost hurting him. Afterward he’d be nice though and sit with him for a while before they had to clean up before Tony found them. Tony would never really talk to Peter, even though Bruce assured him there was no possible way he knew what was going on.

“Peter?” MJ asked. He looked at her suddenly feeling a dreadful feeling.

“MJ…I…oh my God…what if…what if Bruce isn’t what I thought… what if… MJ, I’ve been going to that tower for six months and I’ve _never_ actually spoken to Tony. I mean, it’s his tower, you’d think he’d say something but when we’re in the lab, he’ll come in and Bruce will go talk to him and he’ll leave. It’s Tony’s lab, shouldn’t he talk to people that come and go, MJ?” he said, looking up at her.

She shook her head. “Peter that doesn’t make sense. If Tony thought you were there working on a project with Bruce, why didn’t he ever look in and see how you were doing? He’s a scientist too, Peter. He should be interested in what his husband is working on. And his own home and he doesn’t say anything around you or even talk to you?”

Peter shook his head. “I think…I think I’m cutting class to go see what happened after I left. Bruce…kinda flipped out after Tony walked off. He told me to leave and he went running toward what he called his hulk room.”

MJ shook her head, suddenly worried. “Tony was supposed to speak today at an assembly for a university on business structure. I just got a message from my contact at the newspaper; he never showed up and didn’t give an explanation. The school board is having a fit about it and telling everyone they can how irresponsible he is…”

Peter looked at her for a long moment. “But…but if he did something to Tony after I left Saturday night…he can’t defend himself without his suit, MJ. Not from Bruce if he goes into hulk form.”

The door opened and Peter looked up to see both Danny and Sam looked annoyed. Of course they’d tracked him with his communicator.

“Peter, what the hell man, class started already, what are you doing in here?” Sam asked, frowning.

MJ shook her head. “Whatever Peter, but you need to fix this.”

She left, leaving Peter feeling somewhat cold. He sat down in one of the desks and stared at his hands. Danny and Sam sat down near him.

“Dude, what’s up?” Sam asked.

Peter sighed. “I…guys. I think I’ve got a problem. And I think it will affect us. So…”

“What is it?” Danny asked, blond brow wrinkling.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but I have a boyfriend,” he said quietly.

Sam rolled his eyes expressively. “Oh no, we never noticed you sneaking away after missions or missing breifings with bullshit excuses.

“Shut up, Sam,” Peter said, with a sigh. “Thing is…it…that is the guy I’ve been seeing is Bruce Banner,” he said, sighing.

“What?” Sam said, eyes going wide. “No shit? Like Bruce Banner, Avenger Hulk and married to Tony Stark?”

Peter nodded slowly. “Peter, this is not a good situation. Did Tony find out about the affair you are having with his husband?” Danny said, concern lining his face.

“He did, and I don’t know what happened, but he missed a major meeting today, and I can’t get ahold of Bruce. When I left, after Tony walked in on us, Bruce hulked out,” he said, looking at them.

“Walked in on you? You mean like having sex?” Sam asked, eyes wide.

Peter nodded. “Yeah. That’s the gist of it.”

“How long?” asked Danny. “I thought you were helping Bruce with research.”

“I was, and things just led to things, and before I knew it…I don’t know. I really don’t. He says that he can’t take Tony much anymore and I am easier to deal with, but that doesn’t sound right to me anymore…” Peter said, running a hand over his head.

“Fury is gonna have a shit fit, Peter,” came Ava’s voice as she walked in with Luke.

He nodded. “I think…I think I should go see if I can talk to Bruce,” he said standing.

“We’ll go with you,” Luke said. “Just in case you have to deal with Hulk, that’s not a good idea alone,” he said shaking his head.

Peter sighed, nodding and together they headed out. They got to the Tower sometime later and Peter led his group up to the private floors. He had the elevator codes to be allowed access to the inner parts, of course.

Sam whistled as they walked in. “Shit…look at this, this is amazing…I want to live here.”

“Good morning, sirs and ma’am,” came JARVIS, startling all but Peter.

“Hey JARVIS. Is Bruce here?” he asked. He looked at the others. “JARVIS is Tony’s AI system, an amazing piece of technology, to be honest.”

“Unless Dr. Banner is in an unmonitored area, he is not in the tower.”

Peter frowned. “Unmonitored areas?” he asked.

“Yes, Mr. Parker. Dr. Banner’s lab, the hulk room, and Sir and Dr. Banner’s bedroom are unmonitored.”

“Is anyone else here?” he asked, not seeing anyone at all.

“Everyone has gone to the helicarrier,” JARVIS answered.

Peter nodded, guessing they had a mission call out and that is why he hadn’t be able to contact Bruce. “Is Bruce with them?”

“Dr. Banner is not with the other Avengers.”

Peter shook his head again. “That’s odd, so he might be in one of the unmonitored areas then. He could be in his lab, come on,” he said, gesturing to his team to go with him. “It is worth seeing.”

He led them to the elevator and onto the lab floor. It was immediately apparent no one was there either. He sighed after giving the group the basic tour of the lab and the work that he and Bruce had been working on. They then headed to the other side of the floor where Tony had built what amounted to a hulk playroom. He put his suits that he wanted Bruce to test for durability in there, and there were things that he could break and smash around. Again, the room was empty.

“Maybe he’s asleep,” Peter said as they headed up toward the bedroom. He input the private code.

“You know the private code to access Tony and Bruce’s bedroom,” Ava said, eyeing him.

Peter blushed. “He said I should know it just in case something happened.”

“Yeah, right,” Sam said as the door opened and they went down the short hall.

The door was hanging open and the lights were on inside the room. Peter smiled, thinking that surly that meant that Bruce was inside. He pushed open the door and froze. His companions ran into him from the sudden stop and then saw what had caused him to stop. The room was a disaster, things knocked off everywhere, and most horrifying of all, the large bed that was the focal point of the room, had sheets stained red.

Peter walked in slowly and saw that it was still somewhat tacky. There was a lot of it.

“That’s a lot of blood, Peter,” Sam said, his cocky attitude dropping immediately.

Peter shook his head, knowing that it was way too much blood. “Did…did he kill Tony?” he whispered. “Or…or did Tony kill himself?” he said, looking at the others. Either way, Peter was frozen at the mere thought.

“As the AI,” Luke said, pushing Peter back out through the door. “See what he says.”

“JARVIS, where’s Tony?” he asked, fearing the answer.

“Sir is currently in surgery on the helicarrier.”

“What happened to him, JARVIS?” he asked slowly.

“Uncertain. Protocols in place prevent me from monitoring areas as well as monitoring sir’s medical condition,” he said smoothly.

Ava looked at him. “Peter. You are fucking a guy that quite possibly was abusing Tony Stark?”

Peter looked up and shook his head. “No, why would Bruce do that?”

Sam cocked a brow. “Okay, even I’m not that stupid. He has a super intelligent AI and he makes sure that he can’t monitor his medical condition at all and can’t see into the rooms that he spends time privately with Bruce. Put two and two together, Peter.”

Peter opened his mouth and then snapped it closed for a long moment. “Oh God, this is…Fury is gonna kill me,” he said and looked up at his companions.

Danny, who had been relatively silent until now nodded. “I am afraid that you are as they say, fucked. And not in a good way.”


	3. When the Villain is Revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First draft, be aware edits may be coming and possible extra scenes.

“Is everything going according to plan?” the scrambled voice over the small laptop said.

“Yes, sir, it is. Hulk has obtained control of the body and is refusing to allow Banner to regain control, just as you suspected would occur,” the young man, a boy about twenty or so with dark brown hair cut to his jawline and piercing gray eyes said into the microphone.

There was a laugh, which sounded all the more nefarious because it was behind the voice changer. “Good, good. Make sure Ross is aware of the Hulk’s current location; let’s see if we can’t put some dents in that spirit of the beast’s. Put in the anonymous tip we discussed.”

“Of course, sir. Um, what about Parker?” he asked, wringing his hands slightly. “He’s…unpredictable.”

There was a snort. “Don’t worry about Parker. He’s insignificant, and so is his team of children pretending to be heroes. Ignore them.”

He nodded. “Okay, sir. Anything else?”

“Oh, did he kill Stark, by chance?” the voice asked, hopeful.

“I don’t know sir, the whole thing has been kept quiet, my guess is that it’s within SHEILD only. If he’s dead, the public hasn’t been notified,” he said with a shrug.

Behind him, there was a knock at the door. “Sir, I have to go.”

“Very well, check in in twelve hours.”

He slammed the laptop closed and went to the door, and put on a radiant smile. “Mary Jane!” he said as he opened the door to his dorm room to see his date for the night.

“Hey, Charles. Are you ready?” she asked with a brilliant smile.

“Oh, yes, Mary Jane, very ready, starved in fact, and I can’t wait to see this movie…how was your day?” he asked, grabbing his coat and heading out the door.

“Oh, my best friend, Peter, you know, he’s having boyfriend issues,” she said with a sigh.

“Oh that’s never good, here, tell me about it over dinner,” he said, shutting the door. “Don’t want to miss our reservation!”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Sir! General Ross is on the line!” Maria yelled across the helicarrier.

“Fuck,” Fury muttered under his breath. “Put him in the conference room.”

Just what he needed, that psychotic son of a bitch messing with the hulk right now. He had to put him off the trail but he was at a loss for how to do it. Tony was still in surgery with no word on exactly how long he would be out of commission and no idea of what condition he would be in mentally when he woke up.

“General Ross, so good to hear from you,” Fury said as he sat down and stared at the dour face of the General.

“Cut the crap, Fury. You lost control of hulk, didn’t you?” he said.

Fury arched a brow. “What makes you say that, general? The hulk is right where we put him and under SHIELD surveillance at this time. Northern New York, helping with some forest removal.”

General Ross growled. “Bullshit, Fury. You let him go out of control, and now I’m taking him down,” he said, the line going dead.

“Dammit,” he muttered, standing up. “Barton, get your ass in here!” he yelled out the door.

Clint came running. “Director?” he asked.

“Have Thor show you where hulk is, take the strongest hulk dropping tranqs we got and bring him back. Keep him sedated even if he turns back to Banner. We don’t know what the fuck is going on, but Ross is on his way to deal with the hulk if we don’t get him back first. It will take him a few hours to mobilize, but Thor can get you there in a few minutes. Take him down, bring him back, we’ll question him then,” he said with a nod.

“Got it, boss,” Clint said, and took off, clapping Thor on the back and heading out.

Asgardian express wasn’t his favorite way to travel, but he had to hand it to Thor, he could move fast when the need arose. Before long they were close to where Hulk was effectively deforesting an entire area. Clint and Thor dropped down into the newly formed clearing.

“Friend Hulk!” Thor bellowed, getting the green monster’s attention.

“What Thunder want?” he yelled back.

Clint spoke up. “Ross is coming this way. We need you to come back. I’ll tranquilize you, and we’re not going to let Bruce have control,” he said, hoping that he would listen.

He roared, “Hulk no go!”

Clint nodded. “Look, I get it, but you want Bruce to get in trouble for what he did, right? Be punished?”

The hulk tilted his head and nodded.

“Okay, then, I’m going to use this tranq arrow, and you’re gonna let me, got it, big guy? If Banner wakes up, you can just take control back,” Clint said, loading up the arrow and pointing it at him.

The hulk looked like he was about to debate the issue but nodded. “Hulk go.” In the distance, they could hear Ross’s people heading their way. Clint took the shot, hitting him in the thigh and he crumpled into Bruce’s form, but he was out before he hit the ground. Thor picked up Bruce and tossed him over his shoulder and looked at Clint. “I cannot carry two.”

Clint shook his head. “Ah, I’ll wait for Ross.”

Thor nodded and headed back, leaving Clint to deal with the annoyed general. He hoped his friend would be alright there alone. He had to get Bruce back and under sedation before he woke up again, though, so he headed back, going unnoticed by the army massing nearby. He landed on the helicarrier and went directly to the med bay where Bruce was set up on a high powered sedative. He went to the other area and the waiting room where Steve and Pepper sat waiting for word.

“Has there been any news on the man of Iron?” Thor asked quietly as he entered. He had actually learned how to speak in appropriate tones to a situation in the last three years.

Pepper shook her head. “Not yet, Thor. The last we heard they were having to watch for swelling around his trachea where those bruises on his throat were, and they were almost done with the abdominal surgery. It looked worse than it was, they said, but there was a perforation they had to repair as well as a few other internal and external tears that had to be stitched. We have to watch for infection over the next week or so, and he’ll be on a nasal feeding tube for a while, as long as his nose doesn’t swell too badly. That’s broken, and both his cheekbones were fractured somehow. So far, there haven’t been complications to the surgery however.”

Thor nodded. “I wish that I could bring a healer to him, but I fear my father may not approve such use of Asgardian magic.”

Steve smiled at him. “Don’t worry, Thor. You guys picked up the hulk?”

“Yes, friend Clint stayed behind to deal with the Ross fellow,” Thor said. “The hulk is in the other medical bay under sedation. They said they had many tests to run, since the recent acts were out of character for friend Bruce.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, you could say that.”

Steve stood and went to leave, but Pepper put a hand on his arm. “What are you doing?”

“I need to move around,” he said quietly, heading out of the room.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Peter came up to the carrier with more than a little trepidation. The shuttle had met them at the tower, so it was obvious that Fury was watching the tower. He wasn’t really looking forward to discussing the situation with Fury, or anyone for that matter. Danny and Sam weren’t letting him slip away though. He had to own up to it. As expected, he was met by a stern faced Fury.

“Mr. Parker, I think we have something to talk about,” he said.

Peter looked at him and shrugged. “About my really good catch rate?” he asked.

Fury pointed to the conference room. Peter and his team went in quietly. To be honest, Peter was out of smart aleck remarks today.

“So, Parker. Care to tell me anything?” Fury said as he sat down opposite the younger man and his team.

Peter shifted a bit uncomfortably. “I guess you already know by the way you’re looking at me.”

Fury nodded. “A tiny bit of footage that Tony forgot to erase from his databanks. Hard to come by. Tony worked really hard at hiding everything that happened in that tower. You were there, and I’m sure you were aware of what happened.”

“Please…tell me Bruce…he didn’t…” Peter stammered, staring at his hands nervously.

“Tony’s not dead. He’s in surgery. What I need to know is what the hell were you thinking?” Fury said, leaning back and sighing.

Peter looked to his friends and found they were all avoiding his gaze. “I thought…I thought he was telling me the truth and that he l-loved me, and that him and Tony were wrong for each other and that…that…he wasn’t going to leave him because it would look bad for Tony if they got a divorce so soon.”

Fury shook his head. “I believe you,” he said and sighed. “Wish I could punish you for being a stupid kid, but I can’t. Bruce had us all fooled, it would seem. What I do need to know is how it started.”

Peter sighed. “I met him after a function at the school. We talked, he knew who I was, had read the file, and so he wanted to do some testing. I mean, at first, that was all it was. I was working with him on the stuff in the lab. Then I asked about Tony and he said he was busy and not to worry about him.   Then…just this one night, he just came on really strong and…you know…one thing led to another…”

Fury frowned. “Had anything changed for you recently? New friends, relationships around you?”

Peter shook his head. “I remember it was funny that I’d end up getting together with him because my friend MJ started dating a new guy the week before, a guy named Charles, I think. Nothing serious, and they’re still together now.”

Fury nodded. “This Charles, new in school?”

Peter looked up. “Um, yeah, actually, just moved to New York from Connecticut. Good guy, a chemistry major, so we have a lot of classes together. When they started hanging together, of course, we saw each other a lot.”

Fury nodded. “Might be nothing, but I’m looking for anything that might be important.”

After a while Fury told them they could go, and everyone else left, but Peter wanted to stay and see if Tony was alright. He really didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him. He never did. He got up and headed out and ran into someone. He started to mutter apologies when he felt a very strong hand grip his arm. He looked up to see himself staring into a face that perhaps everyone in all of SHIELD knew very well. Steve Rogers was giving him a very strange look. Oh, hell, he thought. He knows too.

“C-captain…Rogers,” he said, trying not to tremble. Just not what he wanted right now. Like the rest of the team he idolized Captain America, who wouldn’t? He was the first Avenger, the supersoldier… He didn’t want to meet him under these cirucmstances.

“Parker,” he said quietly, and that one word made Peter want to crawl in a hole and die. “I see you came on board. Bruce is sedated. We’re not planning on letting him wake up for a while, though.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, th-that’s good. I don’t think I could talk to him right now.”

Steve sighed, letting go. “Look, I get that you were used in this. Just, try to do the right thing now. That’s all I ask.”

Steve turned and left, leaving Peter standing feeling a lot less confident than when he started. He sighed and leaned against the helicarrier wall for a moment to collect himself. He moved down the halls and found himself in the outside of the med bay where they had Bruce. He was sedated, but otherwise, it looked like Bruce. He sighed, winding his way down to where the other medbay was and he saw that apparently Tony had come out of surgery. Pepper, he thought her name was, was sitting beside the bed, holding one of his hands, and Thor was leaning against the wall by the door. Peter winced. His face was black across both cheekbones and his nose was terribly swollen. He could see the stark purple marks around his neck, and otherwise he was covered with the blanket, the only other thing was the blue of the reactor in his chest. Several IV bags ran, and there was a breathing tube in his throat.

Peter put both hands on the glass for a moment and looked. Bruce did that. Bruce had done that to Tony. He gulped and ran toward the nearest bathroom and threw up. Was it all a game to him? Was Peter just a passing fancy for him? What was it? He sat down on the floor in the stall and waited. He didn’t know what to think about the whole thing anymore.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Ross failed to capture the beast,” the masked voice spoke from the computer. It was well into the early morning hours.

Charles had dropped off Mary Jane and come back and tried to sleep, quite unsuccessfully. Twelve hours had passed. Four am.

Charles rubbed a hand over his head. “Sir, I have no other plays, please, can you…can you please…release her? There is nothing else I can do, it is completely out of my hands. Parker is on the helicarrier, so are Bruce and Tony as well as the Avengers. There is nothing I can do.”

There was a long pause. “Bring the rest of the compound to the train station. Your mother will be returned when I have the compound. Then, you will be free to go.”

“Okay,” he said, swallowing a lump and going to the closet and pulling out the steel case.

He hailed a cab and hit the train station they had met at before. He didn’t know how long he’d wait. He knew that he would make him wait a while because it was the way he did things. It didn’t help his nerves. This had all started nearly a year ago when his mom disappeared from her home and he got a text message on his cell phone to come to this station. There, he met with one of the masked men who handed him a phone where he talked to the leader on it. He told him what to do, which at the time was to wait for further instructions. A month later, he was instructed to move his classes to New York and take a Chemistry major. He was an English major. He managed though. He had to get his mother back. Somehow, his failing grades didn’t seem to affect his academic career. The leader must have been manipulating someone in the school.

Then, he was called back to the station and given the case with instructions to get close to Peter Parker through his best friend, Mary Jane Watson. He was to plant increasing amounts of the substance in the case on him. The substance was immediately absorbed into the skin wherever it touched and Charles had to be careful with it. He didn’t know what it was. He didn’t ask, he didn’t care. He would do anything to get his mom back. Now, though, he couldn’t do anything more for this leader of these men.

A man approached and reached for the case. Charles looked up.

“The case, boy,” came a rough male voice. “The Leader said you’d have it.”

He nodded. “Where…where’s my mom?” he asked quietly, looking around.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll take you to her,” the voice said, taking case and ushering him away from the front of the station behind the taxi stand area. Seconds later a shot rang out from behind the Taxi stand, and a man with a steel case left alone.

The news carried a story of a mugging the next morning, and only SHIELD put together that Charles McDaniels of Connecticut was the same boy Peter had talked about. He was brought on board the carrier for an autopsy, and the examiner delivered the findings to the director.

“What is this?” Fury asked, reading over the report. “Trace amounts of a gamma active compound?”

“Yes, sir, we’re analyzing it now. I thought perhaps if Mr. Parker would like to take a look, he is the only one besides Banner that knows anything about gamma radiation,” the medical examiner said softly.

Fury nodded. “Put him on it. I think he stayed on the carrier last night.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tony’s first realization was that he was somewhere with way too many bright lights. Dammit, had he left the shields up on the bedroom windows? He usually put them down at night. He groaned and tried to cover his face but found that he couldn’t move his hands. Well that sucked, what the hell was going on now, he thought. He blinked, unable to focus well in the bright light. What was the last thing he remembered?

His eyes shot wide. Hulk, Bruce…pain, lots of that…and blood, he remembered vividly and gasped, trying to sit up, as panic settled over his chest like a vice.

He felt hands on his shoulders and he tried to get away from them. What if Bruce took over again and was mad that Tony hadn’t cleaned up everything before he returned? That had happened on more than one occasion. Bruce wasn’t happy when he returned and found that Tony hadn’t fixed things back to the way they were before he got upset. He couldn’t take this right now.

“No,” he said, trying to shake his hands out of whatever was holding them down.

“Tony, please, look at me,” came a familiar voice that was not Bruce. He tried to calm his breathing and felt something cool run through his arm and he was feeling a lot more relaxed.

He opened his eyes to look at up at pair of sky blue ones. “Hey…Steve…what’s goin’ on?” he said slightly slurred.

“What did you give him?” Steve said, looking over at the doctor by the IV.

“A sedative. We can’t have him panicking like that, he’ll pull his stitches,” he said, checking thins and leaving the room.

Steve pulled his chair over and sat down by Tony’s head. “Hey Tony. Are you feeling okay?”

“Hmmm, I feel sleepy and really, really high,” he said with a lopsided grin. “You look so worried,” he muttered, frowning.

“Oh, just waiting for you to wake up. You had surgery yesterday,” Steve said, putting a hand on his shoulder gently.

Tony’s eyes fluttered again. “Oh, yeah? Wha happen, don’t ‘member.”

“I don’t think you should worry, Tony, okay?” Steve said, biting on is bottom lip.

“I need to scratch mah nose,” Tony said, wrinkling his nose. “Let my hands go?”

Steve reached up and rubbed Tony’s nose gently. “No, you have to leave them down like that for now, Tony, you have a few tubes that need to stay put, okay?”

“If you say so Steve,” he said, sighing as Steve obviously cured his itchy nose problem. “Thanks Steve,” he muttered, eyes fluttering again and he seemed to doze off again.

Steve looked up as the door opened and Pepper came in quietly. “He said he’d woke up,” she said, coming over and looking at him.

“He did, but he had a panic attack, so they gave him a sedative to calm him and now he’s fallen asleep again,” Steve said, patting Tony’s shoulder.

Pepper sat down on the foot of the bed and laid a hand on Tony’s leg. “He’s so fragile, Steve. Inside, you know. He tries his best to look so tough and strong and all that, but he’s really not. He’s just like glass inside. I couldn’t handle it, you know. I couldn’t hold him without breaking that glass. I thought Bruce could. I really did. But now…”

Steve put a hand over her hand. “Pepper. I’ll do everything I can, okay? You need to take care of yourself and the baby, or Tony will kill us.”

Pepper smiled and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll come back in the morning. I’ll spend the rest of the day with Happy, and maybe tomorrow he’ll be up without sedatives.”

Steve nodded. “I’ll stay with him.”

Pepper smiled and stood up, patting Steve on the back. She left and took a chopper down to the ground. She had to release a press release on Tony or else things were going to get sticky with the company. She sighed and hoped that Steve was careful. Tony had loved Bruce with all his heart, but Pepper knew that there was a piece of him that was still a little boy that adored Captain America more than anyone else in the whole world.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Peter started when there was a loud knock on the door to the quarters he’d slept in the night before. He’d called Aunt May and told her that he was going to spending the night with a friend. He sat up and answered it to see a SHIELD agent standing there.

“Mr. Parker, Director Fury requests your attendance in laboratory 3,” he said and turned on his heel and left.

Peter sighed and threw on his jeans and t-shirt without a word and took off toward the lab. What in the world the director wanted him for. He was definitely not looking forward to whatever it was.

“Mr. Parker,” Fury said with a sigh. “I’ve got a job for you. Since our Gamma expert is currently under heavy sedation, you are the only person who knows enough to handle this. We need to know what this compound is,” he said, pointing to a slide.

Peter went over and looked into the microscope. He sat back. “What…where did this come from?”

“From the body of Charles McDaniels. He was found dead at one of the train stations this morning,” he said with a nod at Peter.

Peter stared. “Charles is dead?”

“I’m afraid so, Mr. Parker. It seems that whatever is going on is a bit more complicated than we would like to believe,” he said. “And this is the only clue to Mr. McDaniels death and what is happening with Bruce. So far, this is our only link, and he’s turned up dead today. You need to figure out what that substance is,” he said.

Peter nodded, a little shocked as he looked at it under the microscope again. He reached for a pad and started making notes. It took almost all morning but he finally mapped out the properties and stood outside Fury’s office with the clipboard in hand.

“Enter,” came his voice when he knocked.

“Director, sir, I’ve got some findings…” he said, looking at him.

Fury nodded. “Go ahead.”

Peter swallowed hard. Steve Rogers and Clint Barton were both sitting in the chairs opposite his desk. “Ah yeah, so it is a gamma reactive substance. It looks like it is absorbed through tactile contact,” he said. “Um, and it only affects gamma irradiated individuals. I tested both my blood and Bruce’s blood and found high concentrations in both. It…it is my theory that I was infected with the compound and passed it through touch to Bruce. However, my gamma radiation levels are lower, so I did not have as extreme a reaction to the substance.”

Fury stared at him. “What sort of reaction are we talking here?”

Peter sighed. “I’m going to be honest, but it seems that my reaction lowered my senses. My extra sensation has been dulled, something I had noticed, but hadn’t paid much attention to because I’ve been working with the team. I just…I thought it was normal. So that explains why I didn’t sense danger from the situation. By this point, my extra sensation is nearly non-functional. In Bruce, it…it seems to have drawn the anger and rage that he normally has in check to the surface and suppressed the hulk like it suppressed my spider-senses. It took Bruce actively pulling hulk to the surface for him to even express himself. Hulk may not be capable of coming to the surface on his own anymore.”

Fury nodded. “The question is, who could develop something like this?”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think Bruce could have come up with something like this if he tried. I mean, this completely suppresses the gamma changes, but the secondary effects are detrimental, like Bruce’s increase in violence and anger, and my…um…well…yeah.”

Fury and the other two arched a brow. “Your what?”

Peter shook his head. “Looking at it, I might have had an increase in things I normally suppress, namely libido and the like…”

“So, it turned you in a sex fiend and turned Bruce into a raging psycho?” Clint said with an oddly serious face.

Peter blushed. “Yeah. I guess that’s a way to put it…”

Fury rubbed his forehead. “What purpose?”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure Bruce was the target. I duplicated the compound,” he said, holding up a small tube of a bright green substance. “Watch,” he said, taking Clint’s hand and pouring it onto him. It sat on top of his hand like a thick liquid. He then put his finger into the puddle of it and it crawled up onto his finger and disappeared into his skin. “It doesn’t affect anyone not affected by some form of gamma radiation. But it will transfer from me to another person,” he said, putting his hand on his forearm and the green glow moved from his finger to his arm and disappeared again.

“Is there a way to fix it?” Steve said, frowning.

“I don’t know, I’ll keep looking, but I’m compromised. I don’t know for sure if there are any other effects to this stuff that we haven’t seen yet. I…I don’t know.”

Fury nodded. “Keep looking,” he said. Peter nodded and left quietly.

Fury looked at the two. “Alright, so that meshes with what you came across, Barton. Is Widow still in the field?”

Clint nodded. “Yeah, she was still working on another angle. But this group might just be our people.”

“So you’re telling me, this is a group of people that worship the hulk like a god?” Fury said, eyeing him.

Clint nodded. “They call him their King and they think that he’s the reincarnation of most, if not all, the past gods of destruction on earth. The have this belief that he’s going to destroy the world and it will come back perfect. They call themselves the Verdant Saviors. The truly think that they represent the salvation of the earth. Most the members are ecowarriors, Eco terrorists, people that want to see the earth renewed.”

“This is a cult,” Steve said with a nod. “So who is the leader of this cult?”

Clint shook his head. “All we could find out is that the guy calls himself the leader, and they call the hulk is the king. That’s all I could glean from the outside. Maybe Natasha will have better luck from the inside.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Natasha hated being undercover when it was something like this. She didn’t even know if she was going to get the information they were hoping for. She just knew for Tony’s sake, and for Bruce’s sake, really, she had to figure out what this was. If Bruce wasn’t being manipulated or something, she was going to rip his spine out through his chest, hulk or no hulk.

She stood among a group of about fifty people wearing green robes. They were all here to hear the leader speak. She hated going under cover in cults. The people were always so damn weird. Everyone hushed as a man in a green robe stepped up to the podium. She frowned because he must have been wearing some sort of headpiece under the cowl of the cloak because it stood up really high.

“My dear ones,” came a smooth, male voice over the speakers. “The day has come where we will wait no longer for our God-King to come before us! Destruction is nigh, my dears! The great green beast shall lay waste to the land and a new world, verdant and healthy shall rise from the ruin!”

Around her, the crowd cheered and yelled, “Yes! Verdant!”

“The Verdant Saviors shall pave the way for the rebirth!” he said, raising his hands high and Natasha saw something that made her stare. His hands were green. Hulk green.

“Saviors!” shouted the crowd around her.

“Who will wash the earth clean and raze to the ground these foolish constructs?” he said, arms higher.

“The God-King!” the crowd responded.

“And who will lead you to the God-King?” he shouted.

“The Leader!” the crowd responded. “Lead us! Lead us! Lead us!” the crowd chanted and Natasha quickly covered her mouth as an alarm on her earpiece beeped gently. Gas, she thought, as she slipped a nasal plug into her nose and slid an air feed into her mouth. From the outside it was invisible almost, just a small piece of tubing that ran from a filter on her pouch. There was some sort of gas being pumped into the area.   She obtained a sample and continued to watch.

“Yes! To pave the way we must release our God-King!” he shouted at the crowd.

“Release him! Release him!”

“To do that we must destroy those that hold him! Destroy SHIELD, destroy the Avengers! The God-King will save the Earth! Green as the earth, those of his chosen will stand before you like I do!” he said, pushing the cloak off his head and Natasha saw that he wasn’t wearing a headdress at all. His skull was expanded and bulbous and his skin a darker green than hulk’s.

“Destroy them!” the crowd shouted.

Natasha slipped away through the shouting, cheering crowd. She had no idea what this was, but this was weird, that was all she knew as she ditched the cloak and slipped down to her ninja that she had hidden in the edge of a wood nearby. She had to get back to SHIELD.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Stop Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2019084) by Anonymous 




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